


The Siren's Call

by breadvolution



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Mermaids, Romance, tragic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-03
Updated: 2014-01-12
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breadvolution/pseuds/breadvolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A siren his whole life, Makoto dreams of living on the land and meeting the young Haruka, prince of the kingdom along the bay. While he doesn't quite know why it is he wishes to meet the prince so much, with help from his friend Nagisa, the air spirit Rei, and servant Nitori, Makoto begins to learn the meaning of love, and just how difficult it is to leave the blissful life of the bay.</p>
<p>Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's <i>The Little Mermaid</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Regarding the ships listed, this is *definitely* a MakoHaru fanfic; however, there's a very strong RinHaru theme present through the entire story, and it felt necessary to add it.

_There's an old legend that says the howl heard over the ocean isn't just the wind. That it's a song, calling out to those who lived on the land. That at bay and in the bay, sirens slept, waiting to pull the kingdom into the water for their own. Some believed it, and even those who did not feared the midnight waters. Too many have died in the years, and the deaths soon stopped being just sailors workers on the docks. The treacherous waters that surrounded the port kingdom were too vital to them, however. As much as they feared the ocean, it was the one thing that kept them alive, even at the risk and temptation of a watery respite._

Summer meant storms, and storms meant clouds, and much to Haru's dismay, it all meant the view of the sunset was overcast; unwelcoming, and the same dullness reflected in his own. The sky had been as gray as the hairs on his late grandmother's head the day she said her final good bye. The dreary weather did not offer fond memories of her, however, even in their stark resemblance, and the clouds only irritated him. He wasn't allowed to swim in bad weather. No, it wasn't even that. He wasn't allowed to swim. Ever. He'd given up long ago trying to fight this fact. The rules placed on him were so numerous; it made it impossible to do more than soak his feet and ankles. No swimming when it was too cold, no swimming in bad weather; no swimming alone; no swimming on the days of court meetings. He had it mapped out in his head, too, the reason for each season. Winter and early spring were too cold, late spring and early summer were swallowed up by monarchs and princesses invading the castle with good tidings, and late summer brought about hurricanes aplenty, and by the time fall rolled around, the water was too cold again. No swimming alone was the last ditch effort to keep him out of the foamy brine. He felt he would go mad each time he heard the final excuse.

It all added up to the inevitable truth that swimming, for him, was forbidden.

They had their reasons though, and he did not resent the court for their decision. These rules were in place for his safety. He fought as a young man for the right to do as he wished -to feel the tides push against him- but he was always reminded of the same incident by a worried mother. As the years went on, his apathy grew like an oncoming storm, and a looming shadow had consumed his heart, pulsing only out of necessity at the eye of the storm. It made him sullen, uncaring, disinterested in all that happened around him. Still, every day, with the maids spying on him from the tower above, he would come out to the beach, slip his boots off, throw his socks aside, and for time unmeasured he would stand in the salty water. The waves lapped up his calves irresolutely, too small for a ceremonious splash as it met him, too large to simply wash by. He closed his eyes against the damp wind, breathing in the ocean until it filled his lungs. His toes squeeze into the saturated sand, burying beneath it as shells and stones pressed against the pads of his feet. He would give anything to fall forward, and press into the ocean depths. He wanted to feel the water lapping against his cheeks as his fingers cut into the water. He wanted to feel the bubbles rushing passed his ears as he breathed against her, the ocean, and let the water carry him away. But more than anything, he wanted to stop there, and sink down into the currents, completely submerged and motionless, until the tides cradle him in arms and took him away.

This, he reasoned, was the siren's call. Not the translucent howl heard against the cliff side at night. He knew, because he often found himself hypnotised by its beauty. If he, with heart only strong enough to turn away temptation, finally let the wall of his will break, the water would swallow him whole, for already his heart was dragged away by the swell. Perhaps, though, he thought too harshly of the ocean's intent. Perhaps it would do as it had when he was a child, and lay him down again on the beach sand: drenched, but breathing.

Above, the maids whispered and gossiped, worried for the young prince who so often immersed himself in the salty tides of his own apathy. Some had known him for most of his life, and commented that he had always been reserved like this, but others retorted that a man of society needed to learn to open up to his people if he wished to become a benevolent king. Many believed him to be brave, however, to face the ocean as he did. "But it will eat him up one day," sneered the longest serving maid, a grouchy old woman, stern enough to run the servants, but respected by the other maids as a leader. "Gobbled up by the ocean like a Christmas turkey he'll be, at this rate. That boy needs to get his feet out of the water and on the road to royalty. He needs a proper wife, and not that hoodlum lover boy, and he needs a princess more than that. Honestly, I'll never understand why he couldn't bring back a pretty young girl from the north. Such a pity, such a pity…" While she held no ill will toward Haru's preferences, men did not bare children, and royal blood was, naturally, required to rule a country in the generations to come. God forbid that they allow the common rabble to infect the bloodline for the sake of two young men. No one could argue against her, not for her stubbornness, for she was a reasonable woman at best, but for the fact that she was also right. Having an heir to the throne was always an issue. These concerns were echoed between civilians, from cliff side to the wall that guarded their city against the land. Everyone worried for their country, and what would become of it once their silent prince was finally at the throne. Most believed the prosperous kingdom would crumble from his inaction and apathy, or the aggressive kingdom to the north would move in and take over. These fears spread like plague, and those stranger to the crown had few kind words left for the next man in line for the crown.

"Oh," sighed one maid, her shoulder pressed against the open stone window, "he always looks so sad, but... He looks so beautiful when he stands there like that. Like he's actually happy to be there."

And against the backdrop of blue, he was a sight to be had. His dark hair melded well against the ocean depths, and often when he was young he was complimented for his eyes. Sailors loved his eyes especially in those days, joking that if they caught the shimmer in his eyes, fishing that day would prosper, and it often did. Today, though, his eyes were spoken upon with ill will, and rumours spread said that a glance from him could curse a week's worth of fishing. His eyes were dark and dull enough, it seemed they harboured the secret ocean; one rarely glanced upon or approached for fear of sea monsters.

So his beauty was only ever remarked behind his back, as he gazed out into the open water, a backdrop of blue blending together around him. However, the one who found him more beautiful than anyone never saw that image. Instead, the white sand, grassy fields, and rolling hills layered into the horizon and became the background of Haru's truest love. What a sight to see it was, one that was so rarely glimpsed, even despite the frequency that it occurred. With his eyes closed and his hair tossed in the wind, truly the best sight to behold of him was from within the ocean itself, for who else did Haru show best his beauty but for the ocean? Even his lover rarely chanced to see such a glow radiate around him.

Haru opened his eyes and stared out into the ocean, unaware but suspect that it stared back at him. He felt the same want from it that he felt in return. Something splashed in the water, and Haru's eyes came to life for an instant. "Haru!!" And the life in his eyes died again immediately, realizing that the voice came from the beach: a young messenger baring news from his parents. "Nanase-san, your mother the queen is in need of your services."

"Can't it wait?"

He shakes his head. "Sorry, I was told to fetch you immediately."

Nitori, the favourite for message delivery, looked anxious as he addressed haru. His eyes twinkled regardless. Dipping his head, Haru sighed impatiently and mutters compliance. He took his time trudging out of the restless water, and only picked up his boots as they walk across the sandy beach. "Have you heard from Rin lately?"

"Yes! He should be returning from the north by tomorrow. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you again."

Haru offered little more than a hum in response.


	2. Chapter 2

"Nagisa!" He howled, bubbles bursting from his mouth. He wasn't mad so much as frustrated, and clenched his fists and tightened up as he barked at his friend. Nagisa only offered an expectant look.

"Mako-chan knows it's dangerous to stay too long at the surface," he retorted, floating gently upward around his friend. He's right, and heaving a sigh, Makoto admitted that he knows. A knowing smile slid onto Nagisa's face as he watched his friend at many angles, which turned to a smirk when he saw Makoto tighten nervously again. He fluttered his fins and broke the surface, and leered at the sandy beach. He could see a familiar sight, the prince standing in the waves, this time his back turned to the ocean as he spoke with another man, one not so familiar to Nagisa. "Ahh," he sang, "the prince is here."

"Yeah," Makoto responded, having joined Nagisa in the dry air. His eyes are soft and lowered, but he always looked that way when he treaded the surface here. "He's here the same time every day." Nagisa blew bubbles at the surface while he watched the prince, before picking his head up and answering:

"Why do you think that is?"

"I think he likes the sunset." Nagisa turned to look at the horizon, Makoto only watching him quietly. Makoto knew it was more than just "he likes the sunset," but anything he could determine about the prince were only guesses. He guessed that the prince liked the water, and that for some reason he would not enter the water. The fact that he came during the sunset led him to believe he enjoyed it, but he also wondered if he was simply because he was busy the entire day prior. Makoto checked the surface often, and rarely left the bay. He knew a few things about the prince, that he always looked strange whenever he saw him. Even from a distance he could tell that somehow, something troubled him beyond the sea foam that gathered on the sand, but what he was never able to determine. He could not get close enough to listen to the prince, for fear of being seen.

"Ah, so do I," Nagisa added, distracting Makoto from his vigilant watch, "but it gets so dark when the sun is finally gone, I have too much trouble finding home to bother stay long." He despaired the thought, and sighed audibly. "Don't you stay up here until the midnight tide? I thought you were afraid of the dark!"

Makoto laughed, "I don't always, but there's a cove near here I can sleep in just in case."

In case it hadn't become obvious, these two young men were certainly not of a human variety. While their faces and torsos might reflect as much, below the waist, smooth slippery skin took over into a unified tail. They called themselves sirens, just as people called themselves human, though their legend was mostly fictitious. They were a kind, gentle folk who lived in the ocean outside the castle, who credited themselves as the founders of the kingdom. A human would tell you it was a dark, stormy night and the ship of their ancestors had capsized. A lucky group of survivors ended up on the shores by some miracle, but a siren would tell you that yes the ship had indeed capsized, but the sirens had in fact taken precautions to strand the bodies along the beach. Still, the legends began, and since generations of fishing accidents had ruined the kingdom of the sirens, their kind had fled the region. Some stayed, unable to part with an old, familiar thing. If a siren ever tricked a fisherman into the ocean, it was out of pure ignorance. Humans, however, brutish as they were, could not be trusted and approached with offerings of kindness. Makoto burned at his very core to swim up to the prince and greet him, but he never succeeded. He was always too scared to make it more than half way underwater. The very sight of the prince's ankles from the distance he floated from terrified him, his entire body tensing. It was not the brutish rumour that so often deterred him, but a heat in his face and body that he did not understand. It made him afraid, and so he would dive into the depths of the bay and lay on the sea bed until it had cooled him down once more. 

Makoto and Nagisa dived down, splashing their tails once against the surface as a wish of goodbye to the prince that Makoto watched daily. A fish-breed, Nagisa was much quicker in the water than his friend and often sped ahead, flipping and turning in the water as he laughed and sang into the watery depths. He spent his time everywhere that he could, and in the midday would generally visit the bay first to greet Makoto. Today, however, he had made an exception, and lately he visited Makoto more often in the evening as he grew equally curious about the young prince who daily stood at the water's edge. His curiosity was born also from a concern for his friend, who seemed to grow more and more distraught as time went on. While Makoto still laughed and smiled and played as sirens often did, in the evenings that excitement died within him, like the air above the surface dried out the merriment that filled most sirens. Some days Nagisa would only stay below the surface and stare up at Makoto, hurt to see his friend suffering as he did, before rushing off without a hello. He wanted to help his friend more than anything, but he did not know how.

But those concerns finally went forgotten after they had raced to the coral beds, poking sponges and anemones, chasing fish and making mock displays of human habits. From the coral beds, the cliff that supported the kingdom could be seen, and while they often had fun, there were days they would look to the rocks and despair to see a body floating against the cliff side. Today was one of those days, and Makoto always looked confused and upset whenever he saw these humans. Neither of them could understand why humans did such things. Sirens never did such things. It seemed silly to both of them that a human would float idly in the water like that; sleeping in open water was dangerous, didn't they know? Nagisa was braver than Makoto, and would take the humans by the hand and pull them into the open bay, knowing the tide would eventually bring them onto the beach, where both of them knew he or she would be much safer, and probably sleep better there too. Humans were often a mess in the water, and it was amusing for them. It wasn't without lifting gifts and trinkets from dozing bodies, though, and both of them often plucked garbage from the edge of rocks and at the bottom of the bay for a collection of oddities. Their other friends thought them silly for collecting these things, but no one frowned upon it. Sirens were so prone to playing with these anomalies sometimes groups would gather to see Makoto dressed in blazer and fedora, upright and pretending that he was a builder, and among his friends, they would pretend to live in the coral like a village of humans, even if none of them knew how humans lived. Nagisa liked best to take the same clothing the fishermen wore (their collection of clothes from them was the greatest), and zip around, catching fish with his bare hands. He laughed and cheered every time he caught one, and showed Makoto before letting it go, bidding the fish farewell.

"Makoto," Nagisa began, half buried in the sand below. "What do you think the humans do with all the fish they catch?"

"I don’t know." He floated on his back, his fins moving gently to propel him in a circle around Nagisa. "Perhaps they keep them as pets?"

"Nooo, that doesn't make sense. They take so many fish from the ocean, they'd need a whole 'nother ocean to hold them all!!" Makoto laughed, and declared again that he truly did not know. He, too, thought it was very strange. He remembered as a young man he would swim to an isolated dock to speak with one of these fishermen. This was before he knew better than to trouble humans, but the old fisherman never minded him, and never harmed him. _What do you do with all those fish? I sell them, of course._ He did not know what it meant to sell, and never asked. He regretted never asking.

Nagisa blew bubbles in the water, frustrated. "Mako-chan, aren't you supposed to be the _expert_ on humans? You watch the prince every day; surely you must know something… Otherwise what's the use?"

"Haha, sorry, Nagisa. I'm not sure what else I could do to learn anymore."

..He didn't mean to lie, necessarily. He did know a way to learn more, but he didn't know how to make it happen. He needed two of those… things. The split fin that they used to move themselves on the land, but he didn't believe it was possible for him to ever have such things. It hurt him to think about, and Nagisa watched in despair as his friend slowly stopped moving in the water and grow solemn. He cast his gaze aside, and regretted bringing it up. He wished he understood why Makoto always looked so hurt when he thought of the prince. Neither of them understood why, and neither of them could even begin to form questions that would lead them to a conclusion. For a siren, they only understood a few emotions: happy, and fearful. Fearful hurt too much, so playing was all they ever did. Makoto was strange in that sense, because both of them understood that what he felt went beyond either emotion.


	3. Chapter 3

Their meeting a week later was begun the same way they had met to discuss the prince's interest in sunsets. Nagisa swam full force at Makoto, grabbing him at the end of his tail and pulling him down into the salty water. This time, though, Nagisa was the one to scream, "Mako-chan, I found him!!!!"

"Found him??" Who; found _who_? Nagisa moved in, closer to Makoto than he'd ever been, their eyes just inches away from each other. Bubbles spewed from his mouth as he shouted, and Makoto was confused as to how and why Nagisa had that much air inside him. "Makoto I found him he said he can help you we have to go as quickly as we can please don’t ask questions you just need to meet him come on come on come on!!!!"

Nagisa took each of his friend's hands and pulled him as fast as he could, but Makoto, a whale-breed and naturally much stronger than his friend, pulled back. "Wait let me just,"

" _Forget the prince for one moment!!_ "

Makoto was alarmed. His body froze, not sure what had happened, but Nagisa... yelled!! Not out of fear, or excitement but something else. His brows were knitted together and his lips turned down. He took Makoto's hand a second time and quickly pulled Makoto through the water. Their fins beat against the water, splashing into the air as they quickly moved across the light water. Makoto worried that the prince would come soon and might see Nagisa and Makoto's hurried retreat, but it was something that could not be helped. Nagisa was determined to stay at the surface.

Behind a jetty, Nagisa broke the surface, and began to shout into the air. "Rei!!! Rei-chan!!"

"Nagisa don't shout so loud!!"

But he did not stop, and panicked as he moved against the watery surface. Makoto had never seen Nagisa act like this, and he found that he was so alarmed he didn’t know what to do but stare at his friend. The blonde turned his head left and right and yelled and yelled until the wind picked up enough to make him stop. He flinched, half ducking back into the water, not fond of the dry surface air. Makoto stared, and realized this wind was not usual. It was even drier than he'd ever felt, and abnormally strong for a calm summer day. He turned his head around, fearful for what was happening, until all at once, the air calmed, making a tight circle as a hurricane would, the eye of the storm behind him. He was too fearful to look himself, but watched as Nagisa's head turned around, and his expression went from troubled to enthralled. "You're here!!!"

"Of course I'm here!" A voice came. He sounded like the winds of hurricane, sharp with a midrange, and disapproved of the doubt Nagisa expressed of his arrival. "It would be rude not to answer my own name."

Rei sat upon the jetty with his arms crossed and nose turned upward, clearly offended by Nagisa, and certainly much more proud than an air spirit normally was. Oh, yes, air spirits. They were not easy to find, nor did they like being bothered. While generally they were friendly, they preferred drifting from one place to the next, taking winds with them wherever they went. Rei, however, was a different sort of air spirit, one bound to the ocean waters. More than anything, he was needed there to stir the tides and send out rain and storms for the land fields to grow, and among fishermen he was often prayed to for good winds. Neither Nagisa nor Makoto knew any of that, and having taken both of their attention entirely, he cast a look down at the two sirens before slipping down the jetty and approaching the water. His toes touched the water's surface, but disappeared like steam as he drifted lower and lower, and the surface only rippled gently against his airy aura. There was also the issue that he could not exist inside the water, but did not let that threat of oblivion scare him away as it did when he was a fleeting spirit of the land's wind.

"Why have two sirens called me here today?" he asks, confused as he looks at Nagisa and Makoto. Makoto began to explain that he did not know, and looked to Nagisa with his head shaking. Nagisa smiled, relief having washed him over of his unusual behaviour before.

"Mako-chan, I think Rei-can can help you with your dream."

"Dream?" they asked in union, and soon Rei laughed. He adjusted the fez on his head to keep it from falling as he doubled over a moment. "Yes," he continued, "if your wish is something that is within my power. And of course, I only grant wishes that I believe to be beautiful. Ugly wishes like death and destruction are not something I enjoy seeing, so you will need to tell me your wish, and why you wish it."

"Nagisa, I still don't understand what you mean. What dream?"

"Don't you dream of going on the land?"

Again, the response is shared between Makoto and Rei. Their eyebrows rise and jaws hang open, but for different reasons. Rei had only seen a handful of sirens since he moved to the ocean, and he had always found them to be strange, but mostly uniform. They were like fish, he thought, and it was no comparison made to them simply by the nature of their tails. Their minds always seemed underdeveloped as fish were (he did not think highly of those creatures who lived in the ocean), so to hear that a siren would have a dream… to see a siren acknowledge the other's dream without him knowing? Nothing in his calculations seemed to find a reasonable answer for the reason these two had already impressed him, but perhaps the merpeople had more to their character than he believed.

Makoto did not believe, at first, that it was his dream. He had only ever understood that he longed to meet with the mysterious prince that stood in the water daily. He wanted to understand the humans and he wanted to share in this knowledge with the sirens. Is that was a dream is, besides nightly hallucinations? Nagisa smiled. "You should meet the prince! You deserve to meet him."

Rei rose up, his legs reforming as wisps beneath him. He put his hands on his waist, floating effortlessly above the rocks, his purple vest lapping at his torso in the constant breeze that surrounded him. With a frown, he debated what he had heard, and finally crossed his arms. "I'm afraid it's not yet beautiful, unless there is more reason you have for meeting this prince."

"I…" Makoto turned his head beyond the jetty, still no sign of the prince approaching. "I don't know. It's just a feeling." Rei cocked his eyebrow at Makoto, jumping from the rock and floating just over the surface of the water. He looked at all sides of Makoto before zipping out into the bay. Makoto and Nagisa swam after him quickly.

"Follow me. What sort of feeling is it you feel? When you see him, I mean. What do you do?"

Makoto has to think about it, his arms pulling him across the surface of the water, cutting into the water forward, scooping out swirls of water with his arm swinging back as he glides alongside Rei. "It… I feel hot, I guess, like the ocean is too warm whenever he's there, but it doesn't feel like just like that either. Most of the time I just dive down to the water bed and wait for it to cool down. Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it doesn't go away until the next day. I've tried to approach him, but the heat is usually too much for me."

"So you love him?"

"Love?"

Rei stops, straightening again that his feet floated gently above the water. The wind was stronger now, tossing loose fabric around as he looked passively upon the curious sea creatures. Nagisa couldn't stop smiling, and smiled even brighter at Rei when their eyes met. He became flustered, and redirected his attention to Makoto. "It’s a feeling," he explains, "perhaps one of the most magnificent of all. Many seek it out obsessively even, and have sought after it their whole lives. Some die without it, as well, and sometimes it is not a permanent as you might hope. But true love is true beauty."

"Mmm," Nagisa moaned, confused and unconvinced, "what do you feel when you love?"

Rei should have known he was in for a long run. He crosses his legs quickly, descending near the water again so that he was closer to the bobbing heads of the siren. Makoto and Nagisa seemed intent to understand what he had to say, another interesting fact about them. He never met a siren hoping to learn. "I am an air spirit," he declared, "and what love for us is a feeling likely different than for a human, or for a siren. It is catastrophic and awe inspiring no less, coming together as hurricanes or tornadoes, or rain and thunder."

Makoto felt his spine shiver, hating thunderstorms. "But Rei-chan," Nagisa interrupted, "hurricanes are scary!"

"Love is also scary, which is what your friend may be experiencing when he sees the prince. You wish to meet him, don't you? Even despite what terrible things are said of humans' brutality."

Makoto stared at Rei, and shook his head. "No, the prince isn't brutal."

"How do you know?"

"I don't," his eyes cast to the side. "But when he stands on the beach and stares into the water, it just doesn't seem like something he could be."

"How do you describe him?"

A smile crept onto Makoto's face. "Beautiful, I think…" Rei stared at the siren, before a smile is brought to his face as well. What strange creatures these sirens were, he thought.

"Then it is done. I will grant you your wish to meet the prince, and you can live on the land as you please. However, I cannot simply give gifts freely. Once you leave these ocean waters, you cannot return to any body of water or you will turn back into a siren. And, in order to safely remain on land, the prince will have to fall in love with you. If you can succeed in making him love you, you can return to water and land as you wish."

"Uh, but how would I know if he loves me?"

Again, Rei laughed. "What is your name, siren? --Makoto? Come to me again, and tell me of your time with the prince in a week, and maybe we can figure it out. Just do as your friend has done and call me out when you are beside the ocean and the shore, and I’ll be there. You should tell your friend good bye now as well. Also, if you can't find the prince, his name is Haruka."

Both siren lit up, their faces blushing and excited. Nagisa jumped on his friend and they dipped under the water a moment, laughing at the embrace. Rei smiled as he watched the sea bubble rise up where they rejoiced, and continued to smile as they resurfaced in laughter. "Good luck, Mako-chan, you should visit me waaay sooner than Rei-chan, I want to hear about everything!" Makoto thanked Nagisa and promised him again. He then turned to Rei and with a gentle smile assured him that he was ready. By suggestion, Nagisa drifted away and watched quietly as Rei granted the wish.

Makoto became nervous suddenly as Rei reached out to his face and take each cheek. He was surprised at how light he suddenly felt, rising out of the water more than he was used to. Rei stooped down and met Makoto with his own, open mouth. Instantly, Makoto felt afraid. Mouths were for eating, and he thought immediately that Rei would tear away his lips if he didn’t resist. Nagisa cried out behind him as he trashed for an instant, but stopped. Air rushed through him, and he no longer felt the tide in his lungs. His tail burned like fire where it met his torso and he coughed and sputtered and screamed in agony, scratching at the layer of slimy skin under his belly until it began to peel away like a scab. There was blood, and it rose to the surface and tainted the water. Rei disappeared like steam, and without the airy support of Rei's hands on his jawline, Makoto sunk like a rock.

" _Mako-chan!!!_ " Nagisa dove down after him.


	4. Chapter 4

"Makoto, Makoto please wake up," Nagisa cried on the shoreline, his head resting on Makoto's breast as he wept. There was so much blood, he remembered, but it was gone now. Naked, Makoto laid out on the beach beside his friend, silent, but breathing calmly. It was a strange sight to behold in the water, Makoto's tail peeling away as red water engulfed him. Somewhere, at the bottom of the ocean, a black and white skin was rolling with the tides, still bleeding out. If Nagisa had hesitated a moment longer, Makoto might be in a much worse situation. Water splashed over Makoto's new legs, covering him up to his naval on some waves. Soon, Nagisa picked up his head quickly when he thought he heard a sound, and fearful threw himself back into the water, grossly apologizing to Makoto as he fled. It was the prince, and only after he was a safe distance did Nagisa dare to poke his head above the surface.

The prince leaned down, brows furrowed as he stared at the washed up person before him. He looked okay, breathing was normal; there was no damage on his body. Him being stark naked was strange, he thought. There was something more about the man who lay unconscious on the beach that was even more concerning than worry of his well-being. He turned the man's face to him and frowned.

"Uh, Nanase-san, do you want me to report this to the castle?"

Haru turned to look at Nitori. "Yeah, and bring back some pants for him. I'll see if I can't wake him up before then." Nitori bowed readily, his hair covering his anxious expression before he ran off toward the castle again.  Haru turned further and watched the messenger run, and sighed irritably to himself. It was the first time in ages he managed to convince his family the weather was fair enough to swim in, and he already had to fight quite a bit to get Nitori off duty long enough to attend him. It would figure a man would wash up, half alive the one day he finally leapt over all bounds. "Hey, wake up. Hey!" He watched the other begin to wake, his eyes weakly fluttering open until they stared at him half-mast for a while.

Makoto's vision blurred and it took him time to adjust to the dry air. He heard a voice--he liked the way it sounded. Dark, fluid, like the depths of the ocean and the howl that the orca often made when speaking to each other. After blinking and rubbing his eyes, he could see, and oh was it a sight to behold. He felt his breath catch in his lungs, an experience he wasn't used to, and his eyes grew huge. It was his prince, he knew immediately even after only having watched him grow up from the distant waters. He was beautiful, more beautiful than Makoto could have ever fathomed. His hair was dark as midnight, his skin pale as a seashell, but in his eyes Makoto saw the same troubled look that radiated from him across the water. There were parts of the water even sirens did not venture, and his eyes looked like those troubled waters. "Haruka…" Makoto thoughtlessly muttered, making Haru look at him confused and annoyed.

"Don't call me Haruka."

Makoto only could express confusion, but sat up abruptly and looking at his... his… "My…" his hands ran across his legs, smooth and slow, awestruck to see these strange attachments.

"Are they broken?" Haru frowned. Makoto looked to Haru as he pinched his thighs, shaking his head as he swallowed hard.  He was speechless in the presence of the man he'd so long admired from afar. How could anyone be so perfectly entrancing? Makoto felt suddenly like he understood less than he ever had. "Can you walk?"

"Walk?" What an odd man, Haru thought. He only assured him that, yes, that is the word he said, and Makoto's response of "I don't know" sounded anything but assured. Perhaps his mind had been jostled too badly while he was adrift. Haru would have expected a man like this to have died, but somehow he felt for this man. He was not the first to wash up on these shores without rhyme or reason for his survival. Haru, more than anyone, knew it to be true.  Haru apologized, taking Makoto under the arm and with moderate strength, bidded him to stand. The difference in height made it difficult, and Makoto awed to discover his own height overwhelming the prince's. It was a slow journey, Makoto needed to think about each movement in each leg as he moved along, watching his feet and tripping awkwardly against the shifting sand. Haru made it look easy, but Makoto did not want to shame himself in front of Haru by quitting or complaining.

Nitori came again soon, offering the pants to Makoto, who fortunately knew a little about pants before his arrival. Haru tried to step aside to give Makoto room to get the pants on, but he quickly grabbed the prince's shirt. A fearful look filled Makoto's eyes at the momentary abandonment, and then it dispersed with a smile to assure Haru that he just needed help. It was strange to have to let someone be reliant on you, but Haru approached again and helped him. The button gave Makoto troubles, which Haru did not complain about assisting. Nitori watched quietly.

Makoto didn't have many answers for the prince or for his attendant when they finally sat down in the castle. Well, Haru didn't do very much questioning, and only crossed his arms and watched Makoto as Nitori scratched his head and let the inquisition begin. He didn't want to have to explain anything about his life in the ocean, and for the most part only explained that he could not remember anything before washing up on the beach. After ten minutes of trying to stir his memories (and Makoto anxiously denying everything), the two were forced to turn away and speak in private.

The castle was pure white, outside and inside. Makoto sat on the stony bench and looked up and down the columns with wonder. It had been a joke in the ocean of the human habit of building these things, but once inside it, he began to understand why they did. It was attractive to have, the carefully arranged marble floor and smoothly polished surface, the pillars supporting the roof. He realized that these people were different, in a sense. That the rain bothered them in a much different way than those underwater, and that the roof over head protected them from that. He smiled, realizing that there were also pictures all over the castle's interiors, and not just any pictures, no. The castle clad its insides with the sea. Sea shells, sea fish, coral designs. Overhead he stared at the beautiful depths of a coral reef, more brilliant, he thought, than the one just beyond the bay. Behind him, light shone through glass, a mermaid lain out on a rock, and a prince kissing her hand. Her hair was long and black, flowers and vines weaved through it. He was handsome as well, but Makoto found himself entranced by the beauty of her hand, delicate, and the strength of the man's by extension. Red light shined around them, amorous. It seemed such a strange custom, he thought, yet something about it pleased him. He smiled at the picture, his heart warmed that perhaps it would not take long to make it that Haru felt "love" for him. He turned forward again, becoming smaller as he felt a heat in his cheeks not unlike the heat that he felt when he fled Haru just a week before.

"Makoto," Haru said finally, approaching again and stopping just before Makoto. It sounded nice when he said his name. "Do you have nowhere to stay?"

Makoto shook his head. "No, sorry, I don't know anyone here, I'm sure."

Haru's eyes closed judiciously. "You sleep here tonight, and tomorrow we'll go check out if anyone knows you. Until we figure out who you are beyond a name, you might as well just stay here. We can find you some clothes for tomorrow, and then we can shop for a few extra pairs." A surprised glitter in his eye, he laughs as he smiles, thanking Haru very much. There was no way this man could be a brute. He had known Makoto less than a couple hours and already he would house and clothe a poor stranger. There was a warm current somewhere in his cold heart, and already Makoto could feel himself floating along it. Haru opened his eyes to see the smiling Makoto, and turned his face away quickly.

"Nitori, go find a room for him."

"Yes, sir! Makoto if you would come this way, I know just the place!!"


	5. Chapter 5

The hallways of the castle were red and white instead, but no less beautiful. Every third window a flowerpot stood, filled and over flowing with blossoms. Makoto stopped at many of them to ask what they were, and Nitori tried his best to guess at some of the names, but seemed to at least know what he was talking about. Makoto smelled them each in turn, remarking on their beauty. Nitori was sweet, he thought; earnest. He had a tone and demeanour that seemed to always want nothing more than to please and make proud the people that he helped. Makoto thanked him many a time as they walked down the hall, and apologized each time he got distracted by some minute thing. He was happy to be able to walk on his own, and the joy and excitement he felt at the center of his chest made him wish that he should never have to get off his feet again.

"Your room is here. The prince sleeps just down the hall from you, I can show you where that is once you’ve settled in here. Huh? --Makoto?"

Makoto hadn't heard a single word of what Nitori said, his eyes glistening in the sun as he leaned into the window sill, mouth agape as he gasped in delight. Nitori smiled, a chuckle slipping past him and he moved back to join Makoto before the window. He was in awe at the city, his cheeks flushed with excitement as he stared in wonderment. Scaled rooftops layer white and brown framework across the distance, the architecture ranging from tall to short, fat to thin. At the far end of town, watch towers scour the plains outside the walls. Tiny people bustle around the distant streets, taking items and exchanging currency, something Makoto had never seen in his life. He had to resist the urge to throw himself out the nearest door and go join the rabble of the street, where he would no doubt be lost for ages until Nitori was able to round him up again. He wanted to hold every person's hand he met and greet them with a bubbling expression, ask them their name, where they lived, what they did in their free time, what sort of family they had, what their home looked like. He saw small creatures he'd never seen, either, like seagulls but different, roaming the courtyard amongst strange looking seaweed. Water sprayed from the ground and into a pool in the middle. It was so beautiful; he couldn't take his eyes away from it.

Nitori watched the strange man a minute, slowly absorbing his response with curiosity and confusion that finally welled up into a light giggle. "Do you like our city?" He asked, hoping to hear what was on Makoto's mind. Perhaps his memory was being jogged? Makoto couldn't whisper more than 'it's beautiful,' his breath still taken away as he surveyed each detail in turn. Nitori smiled too as he looked out on the city. "I think it's very beautiful too. Nanase-san will be ruler here someday. We're all very excited for him."

"Is he excited?" Makoto turned, curious and happy.

Nitori's smile disappeared, and he looked to his right uneasily. "I don't know. Nanase-san doesn't talk very much with anyone about the throne. I've asked Matsuoka-san if he knows anything, but he never knows anything more than anyone else. I don't think he is excited though. He… he never seems interested in the kingdom or its affairs." Makoto's smile faded as well, concern taking over his face. These were the troubles beyond the brine? He wondered why Haru was so unhappy, and worried for him immediately. Nitori perked back up, "but! He does care, I think. He just doesn't know how to express himself. I see him in the market sometimes and he often buys food for beggars and gives it to them. He always wears a scarf over his head when he does, so I don't know if the village knows that it's him who does it. But I know that he cares about the people. I've tried to get Matsuoka-san to help him, but neither of us are any good."

"Who's Matsuoka-san?"

"Oh, forgive me, I should have explained. Matsuoka Rin is Nanase's boyfriend of a few years."

Makoto smiled, ignorant of the word's meaning. "It's good that he has friends like Matsuoka-san and you to support him."

"Oh, a-ah, no, I don't think Nanase-san thinks of me as his friend. He doesn't have very many, you see, it would be strange for him to pick a mere messenger to be a friend of his. No, I just work for the queen and king thanks to Matsuoka-san's kindness. B-but, never mind that, Nanase-san will want to show you the village tomorrow, and we should find you something that you can wear for that. We should have something lying around."

Nitori urged him to follow once more, returning to the door and unlocking it. The room matched the hallway. White trimming ran along the room under deep-red wallpaper. Again, the love of the ocean did not go forgotten, seashells painted delicately along the walls and carved into the wood work. All the furniture was white, trimmed with gold. Shelves held rows of conches and bottled ships. Nitori shuffled quickly along the red carpet floor and threw the curtains back, letting the light from the sunset shine into the room. The sunset was beautiful today, and Makoto regretted for an instant not being inside the ocean to watch as Haru stood amongst the waves to absorb the salty air and water into his body, but that regret quickly dispersed when he remembered that being inside the prince's home was a far greater honour.  Nitori smiled at the sunset with a lengthy sigh, jealous that Makoto had such a nice view of the sunset like this. Nitori briefly welcomed Makoto into the room, saying that Makoto was more than welcome to sleep here during his stay. He asked that Makoto not disturb anything in the room that belonged to the castle, and then disappeared into an adjacent room -a walk in closet, actually. Makoto followed behind him and peeked in curiously. The young man hummed as he looked through the rows of cloths on racks, before pulling out a pair of pants and hanging it to Makoto.  Makoto knew these: pants. He remembered owning a pair in the bay. A large man had splashed into the water one late night, and Nagisa had stolen them from him. It took the both of them to slip Makoto's tail into one of the legs, and he swam around playfully in them. It took a group of three to get Nagisa into the other leg, and for two days they were trapped inside the pants legs, distressed nearly all the time at their foolishness. After that, they kept to wearing pants as scarves, Nagisa holding a long cigarette stick in front of him and impersonating a woman of high social class. He wondered how Nagisa was doing since their encounter with the air spirit.

Makoto tried on the pants with little success, remarking that they were too tight when he tried to use the button again. Nitori frowned, and it took three pairs of pants (the second one too short, the third one with a whole in the seat) before at last they found a long pair of pants with a simple elastic band. Makoto remarked that he liked these pants much better than the others, even if Nitori expressed concern for a lack of formalities. Never mind that, Makoto insisted. Next he wore a white button up shirt which he expressed as being too tight, but Nitori shook his head after examination. "You look good in it, Makoto-san."

Makoto paused, and flushed slightly. Looking good, he assumed, was a good thing. Perhaps the prince would think the same thing to him tomorrow when they met again. Nitori smiled in return, pleased that Makoto was happy. An emerald green long vest thrown over top of it, buttoned up tightly to show off the curve of his spine, and Makoto asked again if he looked good. Nitori couldn’t help but smile as he brought Makoto to a mirror. He stared at himself for a long time, flushed. He had an innocent sparkle in his eyes as he stared, and at first Nitori thought perhaps he was vain, but after watching a while, he realized Makoto had long since stopped seeing himself, and was lost in a fantasy that Nitori could not partake in. He wanted to ask what it was that Makoto considered, but felt as though he might intrude on those private thoughts. One way or another, he looked pleased, and Nitori did not mind letting him revel in his joy.

Makoto thought he looked good, too, but there was something more he wanted. He wanted to hear Haru say the same thing to him the next day. That he looked good. He had always thought Haru was so beautiful, so if he were lucky enough to come even close to that comparison, he would rejoice.

Makoto turned quickly to Nitori. "Where does Haruka sleep?"

"Uh, Oh! Yes," caught off guard to hear the prince's first name spoken in full. "Nanase-san is down the hall. You should get out of that so it's clean for tomorrow and we can put you in sleepwear for the rest of the evening."

Makoto hurried to do as much, not complaining as he put on the baggy night time garb. He calmly, but excitedly followed Nitori out the door. His eyes did not leave the city as they walked by each window towards Haru's room, smiling gently at the city overshadowed by the castle. No doubt the city looked beautiful with the sunrise behind it, and he considered waking up early to see it. It didn't take long to reach the prince's room, and Nitori knocked before entering. No one was there, as Makoto had guessed. If the sunset were now, Haru was at the beach soaking his feet. The room wasn't much different than Makoto's room; however, the bed was unmade on one side, a book rested on the bedside table of opposite side. Some personal belongings lay out in various parts of the room.

"Nanase-san and Matsuoka-san share this room, so you should make sure you knock before you come in here. Matsuoka-san can seem very gruff, but he's not a bad person, so he'll help you if Nanase-san isn't here."

"Where is Matsuoka-san?"

"Here." Both boys jumped where they stood, turning around to see a man approaching the two of them. His hands were shoved into his pockets and stooped slightly as he moved forward. "What are you doing in my room, Nitori? Whos' this guy?"

"Matsuoka-san!! Forgive me, this is Makoto. He wished to know where the prince slept in case something should happen."

"That explains jack shit."

Rin looked much meaner than Makoto had imagined. His brows knit together over red coral eyes, listening to Nitori explain how Makoto was found on the shore line. Rin had an attractive face, Makoto thought, sharp, and while one part of him wanted to befriend the irritable man, the other part of him feared him. Rin reminded him of something, a fish in the water with vicious sharp teeth that would chase sirens endless. He remembered once, very young, watching one siren swim into the deep ocean forever with the vicious monster trailing behind her. He never saw her again. Rin glanced at Makoto, and he thought it best to smile in return. "It's nice to meet one of Haruka's friends."

Rin raised an eyebrow before smirking and snorting in response. "If you're going to use his first name, you should stick to Haru. He doesn't like being called Haruka very much." He slid his glove off his hand and offered it to Makoto. "Call me Rin. Makoto right? Try not to drown again, huh?" Makoto laughed, finally at ease. Perhaps Rin was the sort that did not show very well how it was he felt.


	6. Chapter 6

All night it rained a sudden, unexpected downpour. It beat the roof of the castle like a drum. The patter of the rain on water sounded much different than this; it was sharper, almost scarier as it crashed into its own element. This, however, he found soothing, like a deep hum made endlessly into his ear, and he liked it very much. He stared most of the night out at the ocean, wondering again about Nagisa and how he was. He hadn't been away from his friend more than a few hours, but it was rare they were apart for very long in the first place. And then it happened, the illumination of lightning followed first clap of thunder and Makoto yelped, drawing the bedding over his head like a frightened child. He wouldn't sleep that entire night, instead cowering under his blanket and shaking.

By the time morning came, the rain had settled finally, and the thunder passed shortly before daybreak. Haru waited in the common room for Makoto, eyes dull as he stared at the shining marble. He was a half an hour late. He knew Makoto knew when they when supposed to meet, and where they were supposed to meet because Haru had stopped in his room before going to bed to tell him. Makoto didn't seem to understand what time was, confused about the meaning of "nine o'clock", which Haru found strange, but didn't judge him for it. Makoto often looked confused. Once introduced to the idea of a clock, and shown how it worked, Makoto seemed to understand, but Haru regretted not simply going to meet him first in his room and simply ensuring that the stranger could prepare himself in the morning. He released a slow breath of air and turned on his heels toward Makoto's room. A two minute walk with no detours, he stopped at the solid white door and knocked on it. He knew this to be Makoto's room because beside it was a painting of a merman strewn out on a beach, playing with shells and wearing a crown of seaweed. Haru had requested it as an adolescent after a dream he had had once. He was still fond of the picture. 

No answer, so Haru entered the room. "I'm coming in," he announced. No one appeared to be in the room as he gave it a cursory glance. He wondered if Makoto had fled the castle, or if he had gotten lost somewhere within it on the way to the common room. He doubted both options, though the former seemed most likely of the two. He checked the closet and found nothing, he stared at the vanity to see Makoto's clothes lain out, untouched, and he looked at the bed to find that Makoto had, in fact, gotten out of it, the blankets thrown over messily, the white bed sheets underneath exposed, though some were missing. Maybe he went to the bathroom? Two seconds away from turning around and leaving, though, Haru found him, and was alarmed by the situation he found him in. Two legs stuck out from under the bed, toes pressed into the ground. Haru moved slowly, a frown forming on his face, uncertain if he should look or not. His fingers touched the bed skirt and he leaned over to look. There Makoto was, blankets pulled under the bed with him and covering his head. Haru could hear the soft sound of snoring under those blankets. "Hey," he whispered, and nothing happened. His eyes shifted to Makoto's legs, surprised to see them clean shaven. With reluctance, he touched the back of Makoto's calf and shakes his leg slightly. "Makoto."

"AH!!" Makoto's head _slammed_ against the box spring, and he moaned in agony. Haru only watched, and though it was comic, he felt concern for the stranger under his bed. "Why are you under the bed?" Makoto appeared from under the blanket, shadowed out as he peeked to see Haru looking at him from outside the bed. He blushed, pulling himself out from under the bed. He'd stripped off the night wear before bed, uncomfortable being trapped in the cloth and buttons. Thus, for the second time was naked in front of Haru, who mentally slapped himself for glancing down when Makoto worked his way into a sitting position. He rubbed his face and groaned again. "Why were you under the bed," Haru repeated.

"Oh, I…" He hesitated, turning his head aside. "I was afraid."

"Of?"

Makoto's sombre face quickly changes to a smile, laughing a little at himself. "I'd never heard thunder and lightning so loud before. I was afraid of it, I guess." Something about Haru made him feel calm, he realized. With Nagisa he felt exuberance coursing through him, and while he felt a similar feeling now, it was subdued in a way he did not recognize. Haru dropped his gaze a second time, and then quickly looked to the right. He really needed to inform Makoto of common decency. Haru stood up and walked away, instructing Makoto to put his clothes on quickly, and adding that the delay would probably mean they'd have to deal with a bigger crowd.

"Does that bother you?" Makoto asked, doing as instructed. Haru hummed in answer, which Makoto could only guess meant it did. He smiled and laughed slightly. Haru was interesting, he thought. A siren was never this subdued unless it was fearful. Haru, on the other hand, was always subdued, whether happy or sad. He waited with eyes averted by the door and finally Makoto approached in his outfit. He smiled when Haru looked at him, waiting and hoping for the compliment that had wished to receive since the evening before, but it does not come. Instead, a gaze settled on him for a moment, before Haru dipped his head again and pressed off the door frame.

"Let's go." Makoto was sorely let down.

Makoto stayed as close to the prince as he could without touching, trailing along behind him like a shadow. It was strange in a way to see the prince's back like this, as every time Makoto had seen him before he would be facing the ocean. But, this view was just as nice. His hair glistened blue in the late morning sun, like the fading depths of open water, and he dressed plainly when compared to the typical daily attire of the royal court. Even compared to Makoto, who dressed no differently than the upper class of the city, he did not look flashy. Plain dark pants that nicely fit his form and a baggy dress shirt. Makoto wished he was wearing a shirt like that; he thought the tight shirt he was wearing was very constraining. Haru's head was turned as they walked, watching the ocean until just before it disappeared from sight. He seemed to love the ocean more than anything, Makoto thought, and smiled as he, too, watched the shimmering waves. Today was a beautiful day, he thought. The clouds had run out of water and were nowhere to be found. Rei had mentioned having some control over the gales that brought weather here and there, so Makoto wondered if perhaps the storm last night was his doing.

"Do you like the water?" Makoto asked. Haru turned his head around; he did, he answered and turned his attention forward again. "I always thought it looked nicest on a day with some clouds and a fair wind."

"So you remember something?"

"Uh," Makoto hesitated, and laughed. "N-not really anything beyond that."

"Hmm," Haru hummed, looking toward the ocean again. "I think so, too."

"Hopefully this keeps up, right?"

"Yeah…" The stranger did like his small talk. Haru wasn’t sure he minded, though. Too often he dealt with dukes and captains that endlessly spoke of matters that "mattered." Fishing, foreign relations, civilian interests and the like, Haru didn't know what to care about any more, he was so sick of listening to the personal opinions of men more interested in imposing their influence on him, as if showing off their "intellect" would grant them favour with the royal family. He didn't know the last time he talked about the weather as if it mattered. He wished he knew how to talk more about the subject. There's a minute of silence between them. "Southern winds are better though. The water is warmer."

"Today is a southerly wind," Makoto added, well versed in the way the water and winds worked together. "I don't think it's likely to change, either."

Haru's head lifted, and if Makoto had seen his eyes, he might have watched them glitter briefly. A feeling was kindled inside him, hoping that Makoto was right, and that the afternoon weather remained as calm as this. "That'd be nice."

The bustling crowd at the market was more than Makoto had ever expected. While there weren't as many people rushing around as there were the evening before, the sensational overload of sight, sound, and smell rushed over him like a tidal wave. He wanted to leap forward into it and become submersed in the commotion. (Which, leaping into tidal waves was quite literally a game he oven played with the other sirens.) While he didn't leap, he immediately gravitated towards the nearest building along the market. He never imagined that humans could be so crafty as to build these great structures. A siren would simply move into coves and coral beds, letting nature build for them, but these structures of wood and stone were more than he could imagine. Maybe he shouldn't be so surprised; it wasn't as if he hadn't seen ships before. Even after seeing the castle, a collaboration of the greatest architects and painters, it seemed silly to think he was fascinated by the simple construction of the village. His fingers splay out as he touches the uneven surface of the house, looking up and sighing in wonderment. The frameworks of the buildings were exposed for the most part, and he could see the beams that support the roof from underneath. Haru moved to stand behind him, following his gaze uncertainly. This stranger certainly took fascination in many things, he concluded.

Makoto turned to Haru, who frowned slightly at him, but Makoto was undeterred from his joy. His eye squeezed shut like a pleased cat's and he beamed.  "You have a very beautiful city, Haru." He watched with fond eyes as Haru's eyebrows rise before averting his gaze.

"I guess so, yeah," he grumbles. "C'mon, there's more you can see." Makoto didn't quite know if Haru agreed or complied with him, but Makoto was glad that Haru was willing to show him more of the city. They turned down the market street as Haru instructed Makoto to keep close. It was a curious thing to see, stands lined up along the sides of buildings with men and women standing in front of and behind them. Makoto asked what they were all doing, and Haru spent some time explaining shopping to Makoto; the buying and selling of goods. Makoto didn't have to ask too many questions, because Haru seemed to know immediately that Makoto understood nothing of the situation. So this is what the fisherman had meant, he thought, watching a fish stand anxiously. The fisherman sold them at something like this. The fish smelled of death, and his body felt sick. He urged Haru that they hurry along, pressing his wrists against Haru's back. He was irritated by that, but it was rare that something didn't irritate him.

Haru quickly turned into a shop, opening the door and entering, his hand drawn back to hold the door open for Makoto behind him. The shop was quiet, and Haru approached the woman at a sewing machine. She turned, an old woman with wrinkles that hid much of her expression. She eyed Haru. "Ah, Nanase-san, we didn’t expect you here for a fitting until next week."

"I don't need a fitting," he turns to gesture to Makoto. "This one needs clothes, and we don't keep anything his size at the castle." She breathed a sigh, looking at Makoto.

"He's certainly a big boy, isn't he? Come here dear; let me get a better look at you." Her hand came out to Makoto, who reluctantly joined Haru at his side. Standing feebly, her hands reached out to pat Makoto at the shoulders and around the waist.  "My, you are big. Strong, too. A sailor, perhaps?" Makoto jerked slightly when her fingers tickled his sides, but she paid it no mind.

"Maybe," Haru answered. She looked confused, but Makoto interjects: "I'm sorry; I don't remember anything before washing up on the beach here. Haru has been helping me the last day and a half."

She smiled, looking at Haru. "My, isn't that something. I haven't seen Haruka act kindly to strangers in a very long time." Haru blushed and looked away, asking that she would hurry up and find him clothes to wear. Makoto watched her in wonder, having never seen someone so pruned in his life. He didn’t know why, either, wondering if it was something that happened to humans while they lived on land. Did the air do that to them? She pulled out measuring tape and requested patiently for him to do certain simple tasks. Her voice was kind, and he found that he liked listening to her almost as much as he liked to hear Haru speak. She sounded like the echoes of whales across the wide ocean. After taking the measurements, she shuffled away into the backroom. Makoto stood dumbly a minute, watching Haru as he flitted through fabrics and admired certain textures. He seemed the fondest of the blue fabrics, idling there for much of the time. Haru glanced back at Makoto, who smiled again at him.

"What?" Haru wasn't sure how he felt about being stared at.

"Nothing." Makoto shook his head, offering a pleasant disposition.

Why was he always smiling? Haru thought it strange, but then again, there wasn't much normal about Makoto as far as he could tell. The fact that he smelled constantly like brine didn't help his case at all. Makoto moved to join him, looking at the fabrics as well.

"What does she mean when she says you have a fitting?"

"She's tailoring me a new outfit for ceremonies," he mutters. "My old one got too small."

"Do you have a ceremony coming up?"

Haru shrugged. "Coronation, someday.  Mom says I need one in case I ever get married, too."

"Married?"

"Yeah." He wasn't sure he wanted to explain what that means, and Makoto seemed to understand that, not pressing the issue.


	7. Chapter 7

"Just let me swim already!" Haru retorted, irritated with his parents. Despite instructions, Makoto hid behind a pillar in the throne room as the conflict arose. They'd been bickering the entire time, Haru wanting to swim, his parents throwing every excuse at him possibly. _Why couldn't Nitori watch him? Because Nitori has other obligations; What about Rin? Rin needed to prepare for another trip to the north._ It went on like this, until Haru finally scoffed at them, calling them out on their bullshit. It made sense to Makoto finally, why Haru went down to the beach every day. The sadness that radiated from him was a longing to submerge himself in the water. Makoto wondered if perhaps his wish should have been for Haru to come into the water with the sirens, instead of for a pair of legs to live on land with. Makoto folded his arms over his chest, tight and nervous. He should say something. He should _say_ something. Haru let the subject go, his head flicking to his left, dismissing all previous wishes. "Never mind," he barked limply, "I'm going out. Good night." For a time he would hate his parents.

Haru turned swiftly on his heels and marched towards the door, but only touched the handle when Makoto finally got the nerves to step forward. "Uhm, excuse me." He looked to the king and queen, and reluctantly bowed. Like humans, there was a king of the sirens, but their kingdom was much more branched out, and he had never met the man himself. It was well known, however, that he was blond and wore a starfish in his hair. He knew how to behave politely for royalty only from gossip among sirens. "If it's alright, I can watch Haru while he swims."

"Haruka, who's this?"

Haru turns, his eyes dead from exhaustion. He hated arguing, and it nearly always took it out of him. "He washed up on our shores a few days ago."

"H-haru doesn't need to speak for me, it's fine. I washed up here with no memory of where I came from, and Haru has been kind enough to let me stay here while I recover." Both king and queen raised their eyes in surprise, and leaned in towards one another. Haru showing kindness to a simple stranger on the beach was odd. It was not a belief that Haru was selfish which stemmed these confused feelings, but that Haru did not like to communicate with people at all. "If it would be a service to your highnesses," Makoto continued, "I'd be very happy to help the prince and you by keeping an eye on him." He smiled, jovial as his shoulders rose and head bobbed. The queen smiled in response as the king watched his son.

"Fine," they agreed, their individual tones, however, were mixed, but it was all they needed.

Haru stood motionless at the door, his eyes focused on Makoto as he stood tall on the red carpet. He… was going to swim. He was allowed to swim!! The tempest around his heart roared with confusion as his heart beat vibrantly against his chest. Makoto bowed again to the king and queen, thanking them for allowing him to service them. His large stature made it seem as if a tree had given them his blessings, but no tree stood before them. Makoto then turned in step, approaching Haru as he smiled gently. Haru watched him closely as he moved out the door, his eyes more than slits for the first time in years: wide, in face, light reflecting in them.

Together they walked down to the beach, much in the same fashion that they had walked to the market. Makoto followed half a step behind Haru as they moved along, and both of them watching the sea. The sky was vibrant, blood red and it reflected on the ocean. Makoto was never as fond of the red sky as he was of the midnight blue, but he didn't let it bother him. He could see Haru radiating joy as they approached the middle of the bay, and without warning began to strip, throwing layers and layers of clothes off, tossing it on the sand without a second guess. As he ran into the water his shirt came flying off, thrown into the wind and falling on the foam at the beaches edge. Makoto laughed as he watched Haru execute a perfect dive into the waves. There wasn't much to see as Haru flipped and spun under the water, so carefully, as Haru relished in the waves, Makoto lifted his clothing from the sand and at the water's edge sat down. He crossed his legs and smiled endlessly.

Haru had never looked so happy as he played in the water, and for an instant, Makoto regretted that he couldn't crawl in the water after him and join in his games. He missed playing in the water, but he did not miss it enough to wish to go back now; not after only a couple days. Their worlds had finally switched. Haru melding with the ocean, displayed on the backdrop of blue which Makoto had never seen until now. He knew then this was the most beautiful sight that anyone could see, and balling up, he smiled gently at the setting sun. An unknown scent filled his nose, a smell that at first confused him until he realized this was how Haru smelled. It was all over his clothing, and Makoto glanced down at the linen in his lap. Haru was preoccupied, so with some hesitance, he lifted the shirt to his face and breathed it in. He could feel his heart racing then, knowing the same fear that he felt each time he tried to swim up to Haru while he was in the ocean. The heat that welled within him burned so hot he thought he might erupt, and he dropped the clothing quickly. His face felt like it was on fire, and he tightened up anxiously. When he described this feeling to Rei, the air spirit had asked if he were in love. Makoto asked himself the same question in turn, and Haru's smell still overwhelmed his sense, but he could not settle on whether or not he believed this was what love felt like.

"Makoto!" Makoto lifted his head, and froze up when he saw Haru emerge from the water. Droplets fell from his body and flew outwards as he shook his head. He had the same body a siren had, the narrow build, curving delicately around the middle, and for a moment he thought maybe Haru was supposed to be a siren as well. Like their worlds had been reversed from the very moment they each came into existence. Of course, it could never be the case, for Makoto knew better than to believe that. Still, he looked beautiful as he stood in the water like that, a halo of light glowing around him from the sunset. Haru approached, dripping in front of Makoto. "Aren't you going to swim, too?"

Makoto stared, awestruck, his lips parted just slightly, and Haru frowned again at the stranger's confused expression before he shook it away. "Sorry, I can't… I can't swim," he lied.

"So you remember not being able to swim?"

"No, it just… doesn't feel like something I know how to do."

"How'd you live to wash up on the bay then?"

Makoto stared, and flushed. He should have thought that through. Haru frowns, moving towards Makoto and sitting down beside him. His feet stretched out, feeling the waves lap at his ankles, and his arms rested behind him in the sand. He stared up at the night sky, eyes at half-mast as they normally were. Makoto kept balled up, the clothes close enough to smell. No words were exchanged between them for a while.

"Why are there so many rules against swimming at the palace, anyway?" There's a long silence that follows, and Makoto turns his head to see what it was that kept Haru from responding. He didn't look back at Makoto, staring into the ocean. He was debating his words, and took his time thinking about what he wanted to say. A lot? A little? "Haru?"

"I nearly drown when I was a kid," he mutters, still looking onto the fading red horizon. "I used to swim a lot when I was a kid, but then one year while I was playing, I swam out too far. A current took me out to sea. I didn’t know how the tides worked then, so I sort of drifted out there aimlessly. It was hard keeping my head above water after a while. I don’t really remember what happened when I got too tired; I'm sure I just went under after I had no more strength left."

Haru stopped, a passive look on his face. His head fell back and he landed against the sand with an uncelebratory huff. He closed his eyes. "I can't remember anything after that. My parents said I was missing a few days or something. I think they were exaggerating. I just remember waking up on this bay whenever and wondering why I was still alive."

Makoto stared, narrowing his eyes a moment and turning away from Haru. "That must have been a traumatic experience." He'd come to understand now that humans couldn't breathe in the water like sirens could on land. He hated the ignorance he'd lived in while in the ocean.

"…No," he whispered. "It was my own fault. The ocean is the one who washed me up on land again. I'd be dead otherwise." Makoto turns to look at Haru again, who continued, unchanged, to stare at the approaching night sky. Behind them stars began to shine, no longer shrouded by the blinding glow of their sun. The wind rushed by and he admired Haru as his hair tossed in his face, eyes closing against the gentle breeze. Makoto felt like he was submerged in warm water, washed over by the prince's natural presence beside the ocean. He wanted to do something, respond and express those warm feelings to Haru, but he didn't know how. Nothing in his imagination could clue him in on what response he needed to give, and the more he debated his feelings, the more they consumed him, and he drown quietly in the depths of his own heart.

"Do you love the ocean?" He asked after a long pause.

"Yeah," Haru muttered without hesitation. He dismissed himself again, jumping back into the ocean, and swam endlessly. So that's what love is, Makoto thought, looking again at the pile of clothes in his lap with fond eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Makoto and Nagisa's meeting came a few days later than hoped, and when Nagisa saw Makoto standing on the jetty and peering out for him, he sprinted through the water like a flying fish. He begged Makoto to come closer to the water, then leapt out of it to throw his hands around Makoto, crying out in joy that he was so happy to see his friend again, and even happier to see that he was okay. His tail flapped about fervently as he clung and cried out and rejoiced.  "Nagisa, you're going to knock me in the water!!!"

Once they had finished their hellos, Nagisa complaining about Makoto's absence briefly, Makoto adjusted himself on the rocks and began his story. He told it with such glee and happiness, that Nagisa had entirely forgotten his grievances about possibly losing Makoto. If Makoto was happy, so was he. And more than that, if Makoto became part of the human world forever, at least they could play together in the shallow edges of the bay, and maybe Nagisa could get to know the prince as well. Makoto not being able to get into the water was worse than he'd imagined. The prospect of Makoto finding love, however, was one that he looked forward to, just so long as Makoto did not leave forever. He smiled up at his friend, hands resting between his chin and the rocks of the jetty as he stared up with eyes like the evening horizon. Makoto's cheeks were red the entire time he told the story.

"So does Haru-chan love you now?!"

"Haha, I don't think that's how it works, Nagisa," he chortled, so glad to see his friend after so long.

"Does Mako-chan love him??" His palms pressed down on the rock and lifted himself out of the water, his peach scales showing slightly above the surface.

Makoto's shoulders lift, becoming noticeably smaller with embarrassment. "I don't know," he whispers. "I mean, if I understand what love means, then I guess so."

"I think you do, too," he giggled. "And if you love him, then he should love you, too! But you better not forget to come play with me, okay??" His cheeks blow up like a puffer fish and Makoto laughs, holding his hands up defensively. Of course, of course he would!! He promised that once he was allowed in the water again, he would come as often as he could to play with Nagisa, and it would be just as before. Nagisa believed nothing would change, aside from the fact that Makoto was now a biped, but deep in Makoto's heart, he knew that nothing would be the same again.

"Oh!" Nagisa jumped, falling back into the water and swimming backwards a minute. "I think I see the prince on the beach. Who's that with him?"

"Really?" Makoto straightens up, looking behind him and peering around the rocks. "That must be Rin."

"Rin?"

"Yeah, he's Haru's uhm… boyfriend?"

"What's a boyfriend?"

Makoto shrugged, having never asked. Nagisa sighed, exasperated. "Mako-chan, how are you supposed to become the human expert if you don't know what a _boyfriend_ is?" He shakes his head, and Makoto laughs apologetically. "Wait! Don't do a thing! Mako-chan can't have all the fun finding out about the human world. It looks like they're headed towards the rocks, so I can listen in on their conversation."

"Nagisa, I'm not sure that's a good id--" "SHOOOSH," Nagisa held his finger up. "Stay right here. Sleuth detective Nagisa is on the case." He swan dived into the water and flitted away.

Nagisa was gone for ten minutes, and Makoto wasn't sure what to do with himself while he waited. Eventually, it became a case of spying on the spy, and he peered around the jetty to see Nagisa's blond head peering in turn over a rock. Rin and Haru could be seen from this distance too, so Makoto hoped that he was concealed enough against the dark rock not to be caught by them as well. Occasionally, he could see Nagisa poking his head further above the rock than needed, but also ducking lower until his ears were swallowed up by the waves. He hoped Nagisa could hear what was being said from where he was at.

Haru and Rin walked together on the beach, close. They must have been talking, because Rin could barely keep his eyes off of Haru. Haru's feet stayed in the water while Rin walked outside of it. Together they moved, neither getting too far ahead or too far behind the other until Rin swooped around and stood in front of Haru, the ocean rocking in and out at their feet. Each of their profiles faced Makoto, and the grasp he held on the rock tightened, scraping loose stone away as his fingers slipped over the grimy surface. Rin touched Haru's face and met his mouth, much like Rei had pressed his to Makoto's; but it wasn't the same. No, when he saw this, his insides flipped, tossed by a hurricane in his gut, and he felt nervous and unsure where this feeling had stemmed from. Their heads stayed together like that a long time as Rin neared himself more and more to Haru until he held the prince in his arms. Makoto forced himself to look away, sinking down behind the jetty and waiting for Nagisa to return.

Water sploshed up in front of him, and the blond appeared at the base of the jetty. "Hey, hey! …Mako-chan, you look funny."

"Do I?" He felt funny, that's for sure. Nagisa nodded, but let it go. "Do you know what boyfriend means now?"

"No," Nagisa said, disheartened. "Haru-chan and Rin-chan did something weird with their faces, it was sort of awkward to watch."

"Did you hear anything?"

"Yeah!! Rin-chan was asking about princesses a lot, and Haru-can didn't have much to say, but he didn't look very happy while they talked. And then Rin-can did a weird thing to the prince with his mouth. It sort of looked like what Rei-chan did to you when he made you a human." He frowns. "I didn't hear what he said after that, and he ran off alone. I think Rin-chan had to go somewhere for a long time."

"I saw that…" Makoto whispered distantly, unsure about what to make of the situation, only that it hurt his chest. "Nitori mentioned Rin was a peacekeeper for this kingdom and a kingdom to the north. It's how Haru and him met."

"And you said they're boyfriends? Hmmm… Maybe you should ask Nitori what that means. I bet Rei-chan would know, too!"

Makoto forced the conversation in a new direction as soon as he could, asking about all of their friends back in the ocean. Nagisa said he was very much missed, and that it was awkward to have to explain that Makoto had left on a journey to a different ocean each time the sirens asked. The missing did not last long, of course, something that Nagisa failed to mention by ignorance of emotion. Nearly always the other siren would return to their play and leave Nagisa to wonder where Makoto was, and how he was doing. Nagisa thought he was strange, in a sense, for missing Makoto as he did, but he paid the feeling little mind if he could help it. Makoto was nevertheless happy to hear that his friends were well, and ended their conversation on a positive note. He smiled and held each of Nagisa's hands as they said good bye. He did not feel a smile at his core though, which throbbed with unfamiliar emotion. He returned to the castle alone, and quickly located Nitori.

"Nitori!!" He waved the grey haired boy down, and approached him. "Are you busy?" Nitori shook his head quickly, asking what the matter was. "Uhm, I was wondering if you could tell me what it means to be someone's boyfriend."

"A-ah, you don't know?" Nitori looked flustered, blushing and glancing in any direction that was not directly at Makoto. He had a hard time coming to terms with the directness of the question. "Uhm… Well… I'm not sure if I'm the person you should ask, I've never really.." His fingers press against each other anxiously. Makoto watched in wonder at Nitori's voluminous response. "I've never really had a boyfriend or a girlfriend."

"Do lots of people have them?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Not everyone though. It's kind of where two people end up if they really like each other. Sometimes, if they end up loving each other a lot, they eventually get married. The king and queen were boyfriend and girlfriend once, and they love each other very much now."

Worry rushed through Makoto. Two people… and love. "Are Haru and Rin married?"

"No… I think Matsuoka-san wants to ask him, but Nanase-san's parents would never have it. Matsuoka-san is very fond of him." There was something in his manners that made Makoto nervous. While the words put him off, something about Nitori's posture made him put his selfish envy aside. Concern took over as he looked over Nitori. "I-I'm not the best to explain this, but we can go to the library and I can find you a book that you can look at."

Nitori found more than just a sbook for Makoto to look at, but several, and stayed by his side while Makoto turned the pages. Makoto could not read, and he admitted as much. Nitori seemed understanding of the fact, and offered to read anything Makoto wanted to hear out loud. It was not uncommon, truthfully, which he did not mind explaining to Makoto when asked. Nitori was lucky he could read, he commented, because he'd come from a very low class family. It was thanks to Rin that he had the opportunity. Makoto watched Nitori closely each time he mentioned Rin, which Makoto had realized Rin more frequent spoken of, when compared to anyone else. He looked back at the book, turning the pages quietly. The pages were awkward and embarrassing at times, couples leaning into each other and standing in positions he never considered so intimate. They held hands and wrapped around each other, their lips touching and hands in places Makoto in some ways found normal, and at other times uncomfortable. Some of these things he remembered doing with Nagisa, laying one over the other on the seabed for example. Nitori read captions when Makoto pointed them out. Makoto had to ask a couple of times if these gestures really were things exclusive to boyfriends, which Nitori said no, not always. It was just typical of them.

He pointed out two women with their lips together. "What's this?"

"A kiss!" There's a pause. "Does Makoto-san really know nothing about any of this?"

He shook his head. "It's all new to me." Nitori watched as Makoto turned the page, but when the words "SEXUAL RELATIONS" headed the page, Nitori slapped a hand quick on the book to stop him.

"Uh… I-if it's alright, I'd prefer we didn't read this section. It's all very embarrassing." He closed the book and slid it to the side. Makoto inquired, but he didn't get much more than "it's sort of a private thing between couples, and really embarrassing."

Makoto slouched into his chair after a couple of books and sighed, a little overwhelmed as he took in all the new information. Nitori watched with a smile, less awkward than it was before. "Do you love someone, Makoto-san?"

His expression lightened, flushing as a smile crept onto his face. "Maybe." Nitori laughed, blushing too.

"It's scary falling in love, isn't it?" He turns his head forward again, looking down, becoming smaller in stature as he spoke. His fingers meshed together and did not still. "I've heard it said that no matter who you fall in love with, it either won't be received, or ends in loss. But it's nice, at least, when someone loves you back, I've also heard. I don't think there's any way to help who you fall in love with, it's just that some people become more important to you than you'd ever imagine. And when you're important to someone else, it's really supposed to be something else…" Nitori seemed to glow as he spoke, as if imagining some private secret he held in his heart for many years. It hurt Makoto to watch, understanding more and more what Rei meant when he tried to explain love to Makoto. He would have never understood if he had never come on land, and though the pain in his heart hurt like it was being crushed by the jaws of a shark, he did not regret any flutter that his heart made when the mere thought of Haru crossed his mind. Nitori's face expressed the same feeling that Makoto so often felt, like laying in the warm pools to the south and soaking in the good feeling that it brought to aching bones.

Nitori turned, his smile growing with joy and nervousness. "I hope Makoto-san is able to fall in love with the person he loves." He was really a pretty young man, Makoto thought.

"Thanks… You, too."


	9. Chapter 9

The following morning was met with farewells and goodbyes, Rin dressed gallantly as he stood in the common room. The entire castle came to wish him well, some because they would truly miss Rin while he was away, and others (such as the king and queen) came out of obligation. Rin was the ambassador from the northern kingdom, and due to his ties to Haru he spent more of his time in their kingdom than he did his own. Nitori, Makoto later learned, was a gift from the other kingdom, in a sense. Rin had met him when they were younger, and when searching for a servant boy to send to Haru's kingdom as a peace offering, Rin was quick to manipulate the choice, pulling Nitori out of the gutter and into a luxurious life. It might have been a life of servitude, but Nitori was happy to live in such a beautiful castle and kingdom. Nitori believed that he owed very much to Rin, but Makoto found in turn that Rin did not think what he did was that important. He wondered if it was part of Rin's difficulties expressing himself, watching as the redhead quickly glance away from him and excuse himself.

Rin didn't say much to anyone, though, his hand in his pocket, hip offset, and his knee bent as he heard the king's speech. Haru stood beside his parents, eyes cast down, admiring the marble floor with dull eyes. Nitori listened avidly to the king. Makoto stood beside him. The king talked on with his blessings, a show for the crowd to listen to, explaining the message that Rin was to bring to the country afar. Most listened to what he had to say. The words served as nothing more to Makoto than an echo in the hall, processing nothing beyond the fact that they existed at the time, and that none of it really mattered to him, a siren.  Human politics, he found, were draining after more than a few conversations. Instead his eyes focused on Haru, watching him with a small smile. Haru looked up at one point to Makoto, frowning because again, the stranger was staring at him, and Makoto quickly looked away again, a little embarrassed that Haru noticed him. Something in Haru had changed, Makoto thought. The darkness that shrouded him on their first encounter had lifted, and instead he only ever looked bored at worst. He thought that was good, though, because boredom at least meant there wasn't sadness to fill his time. Makoto wondered if that change in the air around Haru had to do with Rin or not, but shoved the thought aside. After the king spoke, they all wished Rin well on his journey. Everyone was then dismissed. The women gossiped and giggled when Rin moved to Haru and kissed him in front of the king and queen. Makoto quickly glanced to Nitori, who shrunk as he averted his eyes.

"Nitori," Rin called out. "Help me tack up my horse." He gestured with his head towards the door.

"Y-yes, Matsuoka-san!" Without a word to Makoto, Nitori sprang forward to Rin's side.

Haru and Makoto went out to the market then, shopping just for fun's sake. At least, that's how Makoto saw it. As he understood, it was the servants who did most of the shopping for the dinners held at the palace, so there was no need for royalty to go out into the market and tediously pick vegetables. But Haru said he enjoyed to cook, and said that the cooks would let him use the kitchen every now and then, so long as no festivities were to be held within a few days' time. Makoto thought it was strange that Haru couldn’t cook at those times, but apparently it was because the kitchen was often too busy to have a single person occupying the various tools needed to prepare a meal, and since nothing was to be held for a few days, he had free range of the kitchen. Haru tried on several occasions to introduce Makoto to various fish dishes since his arrival in the castle, but Makoto would always turn it down. It did not stop Haru from picking up mackerel during their shopping spree. Makoto had become somewhat famous in the village as well, even having only been there a week. The green giant, they called him, and children would run up to him and marvel at how tall he was. He didn't think it was a big deal, and had quite a number of young kids asking if he could give them piggy backs. He never minded, and rejoiced a little to again play games with excitable young people. He had begun to believe that all humans were more sombre than those who lived in the sea. He was always considered a very quiet siren by comparison, as was gossiped about him among the merpeople; and though he didn’t realize it, he was considered light hearted among humans, as was also gossiped about him while he mindlessly stared at Haru.

Haru tried not to mind Makoto's popularity, though it did make shopping take much longer that it needed. He had watched quietly as Makoto played with the children. It was… fun to watch, actually, and once when Makoto couldn’t hold as many of the children as he wanted to, he called Haru over. "Haru, they want to know what it's like to be tall. Do mind helping me a moment?" Makoto smiled, embarrassed on Haru's behalf, and relieved that Haru accepted. The children soon clambered on them both together, one hanging like a koala from Haru's neck while Makoto trekked two around. Somehow, Haru didn't feel irritated by the children.

Makoto waved down the market as the group of children ran off to go to dinner, smiling brightly as he watched them fervently wave back. The youngest girl had gifted him with a flower crown, thanking him for letting her ride on his shoulders the day before. Haru thought he looked funny in the crown, and teased him for it out of good will. Makoto seemed endeared to it, saying he thought it made him look good. Still, Haru did not tell him he was good-looking, as Makoto had hoped. They finished their shopping finally. On the walk back, they passed an old woman with her head down and hands out.

"You shouldn't stare," Haru muttered when they'd passed her.

"Why?"

"She's homeless… No one will hire her because her eyes are crooked and she can't talk properly." Haru looked hurt about this.

"Why's that?" Haru shook his head. "How does she live?" Makoto had learned about money and jobs the first day they'd visited the market.

"She lives on the kindness of others."

Makoto stared at Haru, and something rose up in his mind; Nitori had said it once. Makoto reached into one of the bags he held and urged that Haru hold them for a moment. Haru didn’t object, simply watching Makoto as he hurried back with a loaf of bread in his hand. He offered it to her, and Haru could hear her cry out in joy when she saw the food. She took bread, then his hand, and blessed him again and again. Makoto looked flustered by all her kind words, laughing and telling her it was fine, and he was happy to help her. A warmness filled Haru's heart, which surprised him. Makoto returned soon, and took back the bags he'd given Haru. "We should go back now, right?"

Haru stared up at him, awestruck for a moment, a shimmer in his eyes, but they hardened again and he turned down the road once more, uttering a distant "yeah." Makoto followed behind him as diligently as ever.

In the kitchen, Haru was diligent and focused. He explained that he enjoyed cooking when asked. "It's fun for me," he muttered as Makoto watched him chopped carrots from across the way. "There aren't complicated rules. It is what it is." Mackerel cooked slowly on the stove behind him. Vegetables and fruit were about the only thing they could get Makoto to eat, and they'd made a discovery over the course of Makoto's stay that he couldn't be trusted alone with any amount of fruit. By the time he was found again, Makoto could and would easily consume at least half a bowl of the fruit, sometimes to his own excess. He said he'd never tasted anything like it, and loved how sweet it was. Haru found himself amused by his love of fruit one way or another, and quickly caught on to the fact that grapes were definitely his favourite. Haru instructed -when Makoto was not paying attention- that the servants were to ensure there was never a shortage of these. The cooks and servants of the kitchen found it strange that he requested it, but being the prince, no one questioned him.

"An orange," Haru mentioned as Makoto sniffed the peel.

"That's sort of redundant," he chortled.

Haru shrugged in answer. "I never questioned it."

He threw the carrots over a bowl of lettuce.

"Haru," Makoto began after a long silence. "What… do you think of Rin?"

"He's my boyfriend," Haru explained plainly; Makoto thought it was a strange way to answer the question, but assumed it was another cultural difference between the two of them.

"How'd you meet?" Makoto received a look that said he should probably know the answer to that. "I mean like… as boyfriends, I guess. How'd you know you loved him?"

"He said he loved me."

Makoto didn't know why he was asking these questions. Haru was the only one he knew who… actually knew what love was, or at least, that's what he believed. He wanted to understand it more than anything, even if it hurt to hear that Haru loved someone else. He watched Haru quietly, his face pale as ever. Didn't Nitori say they had been together a few years? Perhaps this is what it was like to be with someone that long: the acceptance of those feelings without fear of judgement by the other. "That must be nice," he muttered, smiling sadly at the counter top. Haru hummed in his passive way.

Makoto went to his room alone for the night, reasonably tired he said, but with different intention than sleep. He'd taken a book from the library and brought it into his room to look at. It was the one Nitori had stopped him from reading, and he couldn't resist his own curiosity. He opened the book and looked again at the pictures of men and women together, smiling. At least now he understood what a kiss was, and remembered the one exchanged between Rin and Haru. He thought it looked different than the ones in the book, but he was no stranger to art. He assumed it was simply a clever dramatization made by the book. Finally he reached the page which Nitori had stopped him, and after some hesitance, turned the page over.

It was… a mixture of normal, and strange. Sirens did not wear clothes, obviously. They thought it was a silly commodity humans put on simply because humans were often very strange. He understood now it was for warmth, the air on the land was often cold because of the frequent breeze. Beyond that, he thought clothing looked nice. Here though, in the pages of this book, they were naked, men with a similar rod between their legs as Makoto had, and found himself uneasy about what women were equipped with in that area. He turned the pages slowly, until finally there were two men, one stooped over the other, their hips met. He stared at it a time, confused by their pained expressions, wondering why something so strange was in a book about love. They looked like they were in pain? Below it he saw words again, and only "love" made sense to him, because he'd seen the word so many times. He put the book upside down on that page and moved around his room until he found similar paper and a pen. It was arduous work, trying to make the letters with his hand which had never written before then. He winced at how terribly his letters looked in comparison, threw the paper away, and on a new piece tried again. Three times he went through this, before sighing his grievances and calling it 'good enough.' He folded the paper up and slipped it between the pages of the book for later.


	10. Chapter 10

Thunder woke Haru from his light slumber, and with dreary eyes he turned his head towards the window. He couldn't say it surprised him, since he went swimming last the weather has gotten muggier and muggier. Makoto had commented that he believed it would rain, and for reasons Haru didn't quite understand, he was good at guessing the weather like that. As Haru's mind rolled out of sleep, memories of Makoto drifted through. The smiling man with eyes green as the plains beyond their kingdom, with his nature to nurture and laugh and play; Haru stared at the droplets on the window with passive eyes. He wanted to speak with the stranger, just to hear him chatter idly about things that didn't matter, but he knew that it was too late in night to dare stir him from his slumber. So his lucid dreaming began. He considered Makoto playing with the children of their kingdom, and thought maybe he could stay there and live as ambassador for the kingdom. Makoto would fill the position well, so jovial and kind. He would represent them well, and his behaviour in front of the king and queen had been well presented. Makoto would make a good ambassador. And like that he could live in the castle and Haru could always go to him and listen to him talk about things like the weather and ask questions like what kind of fruit he was holding. Simple conversations; and Haru would never have to think about consequences of what he said. Unlike everyone else in the kingdom, Makoto did not appear to be affected by his opinions, and simply accepted them. Haru could speak freely with Makoto, and he was not tied down to responsibility. If Makoto had a life before washing up on the shores, though, -and Haru had no doubt that he did,- it was unlikely he'd want to throw it away just to work for the kingdom. It didn't change his desire to steal Makoto away from that life and have him remain there forever.

His eyes drifted shut as he concluded his thoughts, ready to sleep again through the blustering storm, but another thunderclap stirred him from his slumber, making his eyes burst open and he sat up in bed. The other side was empty, Rin still on his trip, and he crawled across the bed to go to the window. Lightning flashed and illuminated his cerulean eyes as they grew wider. No… no there was no way Makoto was asleep.

Hurring from his bedroom and down the hallway, he stopped at the door to Makoto's guest room. His hand lifted up to knock, but he stopped midway, fingers just an inch from the white painted wood, staring at the door with unusually large eyes. His heart thumped like a bass drum, counting down to something he could not imagine. With hesitance, he finally knocked on the door light, uneasy and nervous, and then again louder, his knuckles hitting the wood with great intention. No answer either time. Now was probably a good time to back out and return to his room before he disturbed Makoto unnecessarily. -As if he could even follow that logic. He opened the door, light quickly exposing a mass hiding under the comforters, and he hears the faintest cry when the door opens up. Lightning illuminated the room, and shadows consumed Haru's view of the bed.

"Makoto?"

The rain beat down on the window, thunder rolling viciously over the castle like a lion charging a gazelle. Makoto slowly lifts the blanket from away from his head and stared. "Haru?" There was a moment between them, staring at one another, their eyes wide for different reasons, before Haru sighed and closed the door behind him. He approached the bed and sat along the edge, turned slightly that a greater portion of his front faced Makoto when he leaned towards him. His hand dug into the mattress as he leaned against it.

"You're scared of the thunder, right?"

Makoto watched Haru, confusion in his eyes, and then glanced away shamefully. "Yeah…" Haru turned his cheek away as well, respecting the fact that Makoto was embarrassed by the situation, and that Makoto didn't need harsh stares to hurt him further. Still, Haru thought, he didn't need to be afraid. Makoto was safe inside the castle, where Haru would have sworn to him on the spot he would never find harm done to him while he was inside these walls. Haru would have ensured it; Haru would have fought tooth and nail to ensure Makoto felt safe. But those things were hard to say, and he was never good at expressing himself, so instead he said nothing, his head dipped down as he tightened his fingers, gathering the sheets in his fist. Makoto drew the blankets tighter around his own body, wincing when he saw the lightning, a sound slipping out from his throat. The room darkened as thunder boomed threateningly, and Makoto wanted to duck back under the blankets and go back to hiding, and weep fearfully until the storm had passed. He didn't though, and steels himself. Haru didn't need to see him afraid. "Did you… need something, Haru?"

"No," he muttered, suddenly irresolute in his decision to come here. What could he do to allay Makoto's fears? "Would it help if I stayed here tonight?"

"What?"

"To help you forget the storm, I mean."

"I.." Makoto didn't know the answer to that. Would it? Personally, he wanted most of all to submerge in a vat of water where the thunder didn't scare him as much, and the lightning was subdued, but he knew that wasn't possible. "I don't know."

Haru stared at him, eyes pale in the darkness, before standing up and disappearing for a minute. Makoto tried to call out to him, to bring him back into the room so that he weren't so alone, but Haru did not stop. When he returned, he brought blankets and pillows with him, probably from his own bed and maybe from some others, and he threw them onto Makoto's. "Lay down." Makoto wanted to ask what he meant by that, but Haru only insisted again that Makoto lay down. He waved a hand at him to get him to the opposite side of the bed, and he threw one of the pillows over his head. "Put it on your head." He proceeded to climb here and there on the bed, tying thick blankets around the posts and hiding Makoto inside. Makoto eventually couldn't obey the instructions, sitting up and staring at Haru as he worked. He didn't understand, but as the last blanket was drawn over his bed, it was suddenly dark inside the bed. He could hear Haru finishing with a few things, clamouring from each post a second time to ensure that everything was together as it needed to be, and that nothing would fall down in the night. A moment's silence and the blanket moved to reveal Haru again. "Is this okay?"

"Uh…yeah," Makoto nodded.

"Good," he glanced down, realizing Makoto had kept his sleep wear on this time. "Good night, then." The blanket fell down.

"Haru, wait!!" Makoto burst from the bed, stepping out into the dim room, wearing pants but shirtless. "I… Would you mind staying with me? At least until the storm passed, I don’t want to keep you all night." How could he mind? Haru had offered in the first place, and he repeated as much. Coolly, he climbed into the bed after Makoto, nestling down in the blankets with some discomfort. Makoto couldn't get settled as quickly, tossing around until he found a comfortable position to rest. Haru didn't know how long he should stay, keeping his back turned toward Makoto and staring at the red comforter hanging in front of him. He wouldn't mind sleeping here, he thought, and he doubted anyone would notice if he did. When he turned to check on Makoto, he saw the pillow he had given him was not on his head.

"You should wear the pillow to block the thunder out." Makoto turned to look at him, eyes wide at first before softening as he looked away. He looked hurt, though not by what Haru had said. Haru stared back a time, blinking slowly. "Can I ask something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Why are you afraid of the thunder?"

His gaze picked up to see Haru again, and then turned onto his side. "I… when I was young I knew a fisherman. He was nice to me, which was... surprising, I guess. He would tell me about his family and let me play in the water by his docks. I liked him a lot. He was a friend unlike any I'd ever had. One day, after a big storm, I went to visit him to find he was no longer there. There were just people I'd never seen before, and the started to point at me and shout, so I fled out of fear. I went back every day after that to see if maybe he was still there, but he wasn't. I... didn't know it then, I thought perhaps he hated me because of the weather, even if it's out of my control, I thought that anyway. I thought he was mad I could always tell him what the weather would be like, and that I'd told him it would storm soon. When I realized that he was simply no longer there, and that he'd… passed away. I came to hate the oncoming storms. They were always a reminder that a friend I had once was no longer with me."

Makoto's voice was quiet, slow, his eyes shimmering with sadness as he spoke. Haru… didn't know what to think about what he heard, or what he saw in Makoto's face. He asked himself if what he saw in Makoto's face was real, but when the stranger's hand appeared from under the covers and touched his cheekbone, Haru was assured. Tears flowed from his eyes, and Makoto looked confused at his fingertips. Haru dared not question what Makoto had done; why he looked so strangely at the tears on his skin. He understood that if Makoto was afraid of something, it was not his right to judge him for it, or let him feel judged. He turned his back to Makoto once again, staring sleeplessly at the blanket that hung between the bedposts. His heart thumped again, and he curled into himself just a little more, his eyes narrowing anxiously. He felt the tempest around his heart give way, as if his heart were finally free of something that tied it down. It was a scary feeling, and he grasped the fabric of his shirt of his chest, worried for a moment that something might be wrong with him.

"You're safe here, you know," he muttered, just barely audible. He can hear the sheets behind him move and a small laugh float over the still air.

"I know," he assured. "I feel safe."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some NSFW content at the end of the chapter. I didn't feel it was explicit enough to up the rating, however.

The garden was beautiful, Makoto thought. Like a coral reef, only greener. He often walked through this garden, admiring the blossoms one by one, smelling the fragrances in huge breaths of air. There was one bush that reminded him of how Haru smelled, so he often visited it. The gardener had taken a liking to Makoto, asking him if he would like to help tend to the flowers. Since Haru was often busy during the morning and midday, Makoto had no problem spending his time in the lush foliage and getting to know the kindly old gardener. Makoto wished privately that gardening existed in the sea. He had already enjoyed playing in the seabed, burying himself just for fun, but putting his fingers into the soil like this was even more exciting. Maids who passed by giggled when they saw Makoto, and some would approach him to ask what it was he gardened. It was always embarrassing talking to them. The girls were often so timid around him, that he too became awkward and blushed as he spoke with them. A few times he was told he looked good against the greenery, like he must have popped out of the ground like every other little sapling. One girl, more excitable than the rest, took her friend by the hand, "like and oak tree!" They called him sturdy and strong, and Makoto felt uncertain about the comparison. He did not, of course, spring up from the ground, but from some dark catacomb in the ocean. He was a whale breed, so of course he was study and strong. They were naturally stronger than the other sirens, which did not stop his jealousy at Nagisa's quick fins.

He got frequent visits from a redheaded girl, Gou, who did not share the same fascination with Makoto that the other girls did. She was more like a friend to him in the garden, and enjoyed the flowers in turn. "Do you have a girlfriend, Makoto?" She asked one day.

"Why do you ask?"

"All of the other girls keep asking me! I'm kind of getting sick of telling them I don't know, so maybe an answer will make them leave me alone."

Makoto laughed a little at that. "I don't, but I'm not really interested in girls."

"I thought so," she sighed. She adjusted herself to sit on her knees beside Makoto.  "That's good; it'll probably stop them from talking about you a little bit. I feel like whenever a new boy comes into the castle all the maids ever want to talk about is how cute he is. It was the same way with my brother."

"Rin?"

"Hmm. Haru, too; but all that died off a while ago."

"Haha, I'm sure they still say nice things about the two of them. They're both very good looking."

Gou cocked an eyebrow at Makoto, who made a slight unsure sound, before laughing off what he had said for a minute. She sighed. "You better hope my brother doesn't hear anything like that." It was Makoto's turn to give her a look, and she turned her head. "He just gets a little jealous, I think. He didn't used to be, but ever since Haru started becoming… sad, I guess, he's much more protective. I think he's worried he's away too often."

"Have you ever asked Haru what was the matter?"

Gou shook her head. "It's sort of hard to ask without sounding like I'm asking for my brother. I'm not even sure Haru knows why he's sad, either." Makoto turned his head sadly. She watched him suspiciously from the corner of her eye, and then continues. "But I think Haru has felt happier lately. Maybe since brother has been here for longer stretches of time."

"Haru is lucky." His fingers tear into the dirt. "Lots of people seem to care a lot about him."

"You included, huh?"

Makoto blushed, but smiled through his embarrassment. "Of course… Haru did let me stay in the castle when I washed up. From what I understand, not many people really offer that sort of kindness. I'm not surprised so many people worry about him." Even despite the reassuring smile, Gou cannot return it, looking away from him and falling quiet. Makoto's expression dropped, watching Gou for a time and trying to determine what it was that troubled her. He never understood girls very well. The human females were just as fickle as those in the sea, but that was probably just his experience with them. "I'm sorry if I sai--"

"You didn't, don't worry," she assured him.  Did that stop Makoto from worry? No; Gou still seemed troubled by something, and he didn't know what. He wanted to press the subject, but something in the pit of his stomach told him he should drop it. Instead, he buried his fingers into the dirt again, planting quietly with his friend by his side. He considered any number of things for them to talk about, but few acceptable subjects came to mind. Generally he would ask about Rin, but that wasn't a subject he wanted to touch. Which, actually, 'Rin' reminded him…

"Oh, Gou."

"Kou."

"Uh, haha, yeah that. Would you mind reading something for me?" Makoto reached into his back pocket. To her, he offers a paper, folded up length wise, and she took it as requested. It was the note he had made the other night, a poor duplication of the typewriter font that the book had been written in. She frowns at it, and then gestures with it as she looks at Makoto.

"Did you write this?"

"Uh, well, I tried. If you can't read it, I understand, I've never actually written anything before."

Gou stared at the jumbled letters, having already read it once, and hands it back to him. "It says 'the final display of love.' What do you need to know something like that for?" Makoto denied its importance. However, the words stuck in his mind like a barnacle to the hull of a ship, tapering around to the other thoughts that related to it. It did seem like a strange thing to call final, he thought as he recalled the two men intertwined above the caption.

Haru approached an hour later, Gou still having kept Makoto company. "Makoto."

"Yo, Haru," he smiled. Gou looked between both of the boys, standing up and leaving without a word. Haru turned slightly as she moved past, trying to call out to her. He was the only one who called her successfully by her preferred name. Makoto stood a moment later, his eyes focused on Gou as she rushed off.

"Did you hurt her feelings?" Haru approached Makoto. Makoto shook his head, but admitted he wasn't sure. It wasn't like Gou to walk away like that, he thought. "Whatever. Are you busy tonight?"

Makoto watched, confused as Haru's eyes shimmered in the sunlight, staring up at Makoto with eyes fuller than they had ever looked. "Well… kind of! Rin is supposed to come home tonight, they had a late feast planned for his arrival, remember?" Haru glanced to the side, the same dull returning to his visage, as if disappointed.

"Right…" He closed his eyes and breathed in slowly. "The weather was nice, so-"

Makoto smiled. "It's fine. You should spend the evening with your boyfriend, anyway. We can hang out tomorrow."

"I know," he snapped, alarming Makoto. He'd never really heard that tone from Haru, and he feared that like Gou, he too was upset with him, but the edge disappeared as the prince's shoulders relax. "Sorry."

"Don't worry." His shoulder shrug and he grinned. Haru, for once, couldn't bear to look at the wholesome smile, and excused himself.

The banquet was grand and celebratory; a fest planned only the day prior thanks to an exciting letter from Rin. The kingdoms were slowly reaching reconciliation, and many thanked and credited the fiery red head for his work. While the celebration more likely should have been held by the other kingdom, being that it was Rin's home, the binding truth that Rin was no doubt going to join the royal family someday, it only seemed appropriate to consider this just as much his home as anywhere. Rin and Haru had changed spots for the dinner so that Rin could be recognized as the man of honour, and Makoto smiled from a distant end of the table at the happy couple. He had to look away, however, when he saw Rin and Haru kiss, a sadness gripping his heart. Nitori sat beside him, who as always was very excited about everything, his earnest nature making Makoto smile again. They had become fast friends in the time that Makoto had lived at the castle, and Nitori admitted later that he was very glad to have gotten to know Makoto, and he realized that it was the first proclamation of friendship he'd ever gotten on land. He smiled, embarrassed, but after Nitori wished him goodnight and left him alone, Makoto slowly reached the conclusion that it wasn't unlikely that Nitori was the only friend he had made, and the reason he had come up here was a futile effort that he should have known would bear no fruit.

Makoto didn't think he could sleep; he felt too awake to bother. He didn't like the idea of sleeping alone again, remembering fondly the kind gesture that Haru had offered him the night of the storm. But that was all it was, wasn't it. Just a gesture of kindness, and that Haru was in love with Rin, and not with him. -But maybe it wasn't? Never had anyone come to him to support him before; he was too often used to being there for his siren friends when they were fearful. Never before had someone come to him and offered them his care. A feeling ached in his stomach and he tried to attribute to the food that he had eaten. (He had bravely attempted something called pudding, and found it to be one of the strangest things he'd ever eaten.) He thought maybe fresh air would bring his stomach, heart, and mind at ease, and alone he slipped into the garden.

Nearly every bedroom window in the castle faced the garden, and for a good reason. He picked a good time, too, walking into the lonely garden just as one of the servants had finished lighting all the outdoor lamps for the evening. The greenery against the blue horizon was truly a beautiful sight, and he found himself staring out at the distant ocean for a while. He missed home now more than he ever had, and anxiously folded his arms over his chest. He missed Nagisa and his carefree nature, and he missed the other sirens, and he missed knowing nothing of love. He had enjoyed simply staring at the beach and watching the beautiful prince stand in the ebbing waves. He would wish to go back, if not for the fact that he knew he could never escape a secret hate for his previous ignorance.

As he walked, solemn and alone, he eventually came across a room illuminated with a faint light, and stared at it from a short distance away. It was Haru's room, he realized, just a little ways down from his own. Makoto wondered if he could catch a glimpse of the prince before bed, as he did while he was a mere siren. Old habits took over, and stealthy, he moved into a bush outside the prince's bedroom. The beautiful young man was already in view, pulling his clothes off his back and speaking -Makoto could understand nothing- to some invisible figure. Haru fell back on the bed, sitting down and staring to his right. Rin appeared in the view then, smirking at Haru as he spoke, his own shirt slung over his shoulder. They were holding a conversation it seemed, until Rin leaned forward and down to press his lips to Haru's.

Makoto should have looked away, he knew immediately; he should have turned away and left, run down to the beach and launched himself face first into the shaking waves. He didn't, though, and idiotically watched as Rin slowly crawled on top of Haru, fitting between his legs. Their mouths locked together, and Makoto began to realize exactly what it was he was watching; the 'final' expression of love. Still, fascination took him over, unsure why this, of all things, was a sign of love. He stared, confused, as the two of them moved together as lovers did, and boggled to see the deep red hues in both of their cheeks. Their pants were thrown aside, and he started to understand. The closeness; the intimacy. He'd felt something similar as they had sat together on the beach, a need to get as close to Haru as he could, to submerge himself in the prince in ways he only now could comprehend. A fire welled inside Makoto unlike anger or embarrassment, cupping a hand over his mouth as he watched Haru's exasperated face, his body like the ocean, ebbing and flowing before Rin.

Makoto swore he heard a scream, and fearful of the heat in his own belly and hips, he turned and ran from the scene. That was it; that was love at its height. Haru _loved_ Rin, and while Makoto tried to make sense of the fact, he could no longer deny Rin his relationship to the man he loved, and wishing was useless. They were in love, and to impede upon that was selfish and hateful. Haru meant more to Makoto than a selfish desire, for many reasons.


	12. Chapter 12

The ocean beat against the side of the cliff, coming up in sprays. Rei hovered above it, feeling parts of himself vanish and reform as he stared downward. Makoto stood alone at the edge of the cliff, his head bowed and fists clenched. Rei's heart hurt. Rei knew where the wish had ended simply from the sight of Makoto's quivering shoulders. He bowed his head in shame; perhaps he should have known that sending a siren to the land world wouldn't solve the problems he sought to fix. He thought perhaps he should have just had the doom-harbouring prince killed… which was not something he wanted to do in any way. It was not a beautiful thing to do.

He lowered himself further, coming to eye level with Makoto. "Makoto," he whispered gently, but Makoto could not stop crying. Rei's eyes were soft as a Chinook wind, a grieving smile on his face. Makoto gulped and sobbed, so heartbroken he did not think the pieces could ever be mended. He was permanently changed, and neither life on land nor life in water was suited for him anymore, he thought. He knew that those in the water were too ignorant to understand what it was to fall in love with someone, or to feel the butterflies of life fill their gut; he also knew that as soon as he put himself in the water again, the butterflies that he felt every day beside the prince would be drown forever. On land, however, those butterflies where trapped, and he wished for nothing more than to vomit them out and be free of this heartache. Haru would never love him. The only thing he had ever wanted would never want him back.

"Makoto." His name would probably never be enough to rouse Makoto from this deep sadness. He would sooner drown in his sorrow. Rei landed quietly on the land, the blustering wind that surrounded him immediately disappearing as he solidified, and he reached forward to hold Makoto a time. He could feel the tears against his shoulder, and minded only that what he had tried to do had failed, and that he had hurt someone who did not deserve it. Rei hushed him gently, patting his hair and holding him as dearly as he knew how. This was his fault and he knew it.

Makoto pulled away and rubbed his face. He pleaded, uttering more words than made sense to Rei before finally asking what he was doing. "You're crying. It's the result of extreme emotion; sadness is what you're feeling, siren." Makoto shook his head, sniffling and gulping and gasping for air. It was like he was drowning all over again, and he wanted more than nothing else for this feeling of sinking to stop. Rei continued. "I'm sorry, Makoto. This is my fault."

"No, it's-"

"No, it really is my fault. You don't understand now, but this kingdom is in danger. For Haru to fit into the equation of a prosperous kingdom he must change; he needs the light in his eyes to return and his apathy to dissipate. As he is now, it would be better that he were killed and another were allowed to rule the land in his stead. It's hardly a beautiful scenario, and I've tried a great deal of theories hoping that perhaps I could save this seafaring kingdom."

"I-," Makoto gasped, just barely able to retain himself. "I don't understand."

"I know." Rei painfully smiled. "You don't have to. Just know that you were to be the reason this kingdom would be saved, if Haru could have loved you. In fact, it's funny. The last spirit who dwelled here had tried to kill Haru to prevent this from happening. Since he is still alive thanks to you, it only seemed appropriate to send you here to save him, again."

Makoto sucked in a breath of air, pulling his wrists sloppily over his eyes. "You are a very beautiful person, Makoto, for loving him like you have, but all conclusions end, and this is the ultimate result. Haru likely won't live longer if this kingdom is to succeed, and there's isn't much I can do to prolong the inevitable."

"You're going to--"

"No, I couldn't. Such behaviours are not becoming of someone like myself. Watching this kingdom, however, is something I feel strongly about. They pray to me nearly as much as the sea. What I do for them is important. If Haruka ascends to the throne, however, I'll be forced to inaction."

Makoto's head drooped, so disheartened and hurt by what he had heard. Haru was bad for the kingdom… he had heard maids speaking poorly of his apathy. He had eavesdropped on dukes that chastised him. He knew that his parents were disappointed with him from conversations with Nitori. That Haru would be bad for the kingdom…

His fists clenched. "Why me, then? How could I have helped him see the light??"

A pause; pain slipped Rei's smile. "Because you are like the sea, and the young prince loves little more than the brine. -Makoto, I know that it is not easy for you to accept that love cannot be returned to you, and that becoming a siren again would only bring you further pain, let me offer this to you. You can become an air spirit with me. It is not as ignorant as life at bedrock, and you may watch over and love this town as I know you do. You can be with Nagisa and Haru forever, and care for them both with plentiful winds and welcoming rains. Haru might not have to die if you were to watch over him, either. However, the price is great, and painful.

"You must die while you are still a human. It really isn't a glorious way to go; death is not something I relish in. However, I think that for what you have tried to do, you at least deserve it. If you return to the waters before then, however, the breath that I have given you will disperse, and I cannot give it back to you. If you wish to remain here on land until you are old, then that too is your decision, simply do not return to the water."

Makoto watched the air spirit, sucking in a shaky breath and releasing it again. "Could Haru ever love me?"

Rei shook his head. "I don't know. Love is fickle." Makoto's head dipped thoughtfully.

"Do you see Nagisa often?"

"Yes, enough. He visits me regularly. You're very lucky to have had him as a friend. He, like you, is not like other sirens."

"Can you tell him I miss him?"

"Yes, of course."

Makoto stared distantly off, though he did not feel like he could see any longer. Silence between them lasted long, and Rei finally lifted off the ground, the winds around them stirring again. He excused himself, and added that whatever decision he made was his own. Rei would see him again regardless of all that happened; at least, that's what Rei believed. Makoto's vision was blurred and everything hurt, and he braced against the wind that blasted past him as Rei disappeared into midnight sky. None of the options sounded good.

Makoto stumbled away, a bit more collected than he was ten minutes ago, but he never felt more useless and distraught in all his life. He pulled his feet into the castle once more, and dragged them across the long carpet in the even longer hallway. He made it to his room, and touched the door, but he realized then he didn't want to sleep there. Was it really right to make a hasty decision now? Probably not, but Makoto was not of the right mind set. He hiccupped disparagingly, running his fingers over the painted wood, and felt himself begin to cry again. Three times now he had cried since he came onto land, including this one. Haru saw him cry once, but Makoto did not know then what this gesture was called. His mind tripped through fond memories of Haru then. He had such a beautiful sparkle in his eyes, like sunlight over the setting horizon. He had a pretty smile, too; one Makoto remembered only seeing once as he chopped vegetables for Makoto. His raven black hair moved gracefully through the wind on the days they would go out onto the beach together and look at the ocean.

Stepping back, he looked down the hallway towards Haru's room. Haru would never love him; Makoto was so sure of it. All those tiny gestures towards him were something only friendly. Haru didn't go out of his way to cloth Makoto because he loved him, nor did he make him dinner almost nightly out of some romantic fondness for him. It was just something Haru did, a habit of kindness he was sure anyone had experienced it at a point.

How could Rei let that kindness be taken out of this world? Haru could be a good leader. Rei couldn't give up on him simply because Haru was sombre. Makoto turned his head toward his room again, staring at the merman painting beside his room with a sigh. He always believed he and it shared a likeness. His gaze cast away, and regrettably he squeezed his eyes shut. He just wanted to wish away the last few weeks, and live forever in ignorance. But now he had to return the many favours Haru had given him. At a running pace, Makoto relocated to the kitchen, fetched a knife, and took it with him to the beach. He would make his decision tonight, but he would need more time to think.


	13. Chapter 13

Wind beat the window, and pale light poured into Haru's room, illuminating Haru's eyes just slightly as the rattling panes woke him up. Rin had fallen asleep beside him long ago, but Haru could not bring himself to truly asleep at this late hour, taking nothing greater than cat naps. He wasn't sure why it was. Normally after he did anything with Rin he would fall asleep quickly, but it was hardly the case tonight. Unsatisfying, dull, he made it to the end by force. It was annoying. His propped his head on his arms as the stared outside thoughtfully.

The banquet, as he recalled, had been as dull as he imagined it would be. His father only talked about how grand their kingdom was with those near him, an endless bragger when placed in front of good food. He was glad that Rin and he had switched seats. Even the position of second was enough to give him the easy excuse of ignoring his father and staring down the table at the many lords, dukes, family friends, and at the very end, servants. Makoto sat at the far end of the table with the servants, and he seemed happy. He smiled with the other servants, and talked with them. Haru tried to imagine what it was they talked about, and whenever Makoto's lips moved he tried to imagine the words that he spoke. - _Haha, yes, I really do like cats, though I guess I wouldn’t really pick a mean cat over a dog; it's hard to say. -What kind of dessert is this? -Your sister sounds very endearing, you're very lucky._ Those inconsequential words and questions that did not impose upon the other side that Haru loved so much. He had a nice look on his face; the time he spent out in the garden had made his skin a honey colour. He was wearing the same long vest he had worn the day they went shopping, which Haru was glad to see again. It made him look even taller, accentuating just one of his many good qualities. He fell back at one point, laughing so hard he had to drag his hand over his face to keep from tears rolling down his cheeks, overwhelmed with amusement. Haru didn't realize he was staring until his eyes met Makoto's, and he quickly looked away.

Haru wished now that he had gotten up to join the servants in their conversation, because at least then he would not have heard more griping about crops being in demand so high when the fields were already doing so poorly. Haru was so utterly sick of hearing things like this. He tried not to leer at Rin, either, for leaning over to insult the dull conversation. It wasn't that he disagreed with Rin, but truthfully, he didn't even want to acknowledge its existence. He should have left. He couldn't believe he didn't leave.

But his mind drifted to Makoto again as he lay in that bed. He thought of Makoto in that same outfit, standing on the market square, back arched and soaking in the sunlight. Haru had never been able to figure out how to describe Makoto as anything but 'the stranger' as if he were a man from a foreign land, but over the course of coming to know him, he seemed to be the only normal person that Haru had ever met. He longed for that normalcy like a sailor longed for the sea. If it was the normalcy he longed for in the first place.

It couldn't have that alone. He longed for Makoto. He wanted the young man to speak to him endlessly. He wanted Makoto to follow him forever like the shadow that he was, and he wanted to look back and see that warm smile supporting his every decision. He remembered lying in bed with Makoto at night, and how his heart ached to roll over and ask that Makoto come nearer to him. His eyes filled with light as he stared out the window, slowly growing to accept feelings he had known were there from the very moment he had pulled Makoto from the water, but had ignored in his apathy.

Throwing the blanket from his bed, he pulled on his clothes once more. Rin seemed to sleepily ask what Haru was doing. "I'll be back later." Rin seemed to accept that. He pulled the buttons of his shirt together and went out the door, moving quickly down the hallway and to Makoto's bedroom. He knocked without reluctance, and when no answer came, frowned, and poked his head in. There was no way, he imagined, that Makoto would mind or object to Haru. But Makoto was not in his room. His bed was still nicely made as it was this morning, and Haru stared in confusion at the bed. He moved around the room soon, checking the closet, the other side of the bed, even under neath it, until he came to the window and peered out. Someone stood at the edge of the cliff. He didn't know what to think of it. It didn't look like Makoto, he could have sworn the man was flying, but…

Haru hurried out of the room and down the hall again until he could enter the garden. The man was gone, and no one was in sight, like he had disappeared in thin air. "Makoto??" He called out, looking left and right. He wanted nothing more than to hear the stranger call back to him, and standing near the edge, peered down. He saw nothing against the foam and wild waters. He looked left and right and right and left. "Makoto?!" And his eyes finally settled on something. Down by the water on the distant beach, a man moving along. He had no idea who it was, and he wasn't sure he cared if he were right or not. His feet beat the ground as he ran off again, back down the same hallway until-

 -Wait. He slowed at Makoto's room again, his head turning gently. The picture from his youth; the merman. It had hung there for years, a request he had made after a dream he had made once. He loved the picture dearly, but never understood why. His eyes became huge, the waters of his heart splashing up and whirling around. It was all that was on his tongue now: Makoto. He couldn't breathe for a minute, and without a second thought, bolted out of the castle, tearing down to the beach as fast as his legs could take him. The sand shifted under his feet.

" _Makoto!!!_ " He screamed into the blustery wind, falling over and pushing himself back up when the sand would not support him. The stranger stood with his ankles in the water, staring out into the bay like a frightened child, but the sound of his name over the wind made him turn. In moments, Haru came rushing at him, throwing his arms around Makoto. Together they fell into the water, a splash rising up around them as the two of them were submerged in the water. They came up, coughing and sputtering. Waves crashed over them, drenching their clothes. "Don't go!!" Haru called out to him, his hands pressing into Makoto's legs as he leaned towards him.

"Haru, I--"

Haru's head shook desperately, his eyes bright as starlight, water ready to burst from his eyes as they strained to fight back more emotion than he'd ever shown someone. "Don't leave me again, Makoto. I know it was you who saved me when I was a child now, but you can't swim away like before. I don't care who you are or where you came from, you need to stay here. Stay here and live with me, I beg you!"

Makoto stared, lost in the panic. He didn't know quite what Haru was saying; he felt that there was something much deeper being said to him, and yet everything he'd learned up to this point contradicted it. Silence washed over them, and finally Makoto whispered: "Do you love me, then?"

The answer came as nothing less than exasperated: " _Yes_!!" Makoto thought he might cry from joy.

 

From then on, Makoto was one of the Royal family. Not unlike Rin, Haru's parents and many of the staff did not much like the idea of Haru not taking a princess; they supposed the second time around there was truly nothing they could do. Haru's break up with Rin was met with no animosity, apparently both agreed casually it had been over for a while. Makoto only knew from Nitori that Rin was more upset than he lead on, but Haru seemed to believe the break up went well.

Haru became an active part in the kingdom soon, and just as Rei had predicted, it prospered when he finally fell in love with Makoto. Makoto was still considered 'the stranger' by many of those inside the village based on his exotic height and interesting olive green hair, but he was beloved by the village as much as he always was. Makoto ran down to the beach and over the jetty to greet and play with Nagisa in the water - though the relationship was never quite the same after Makoto lost his fins forever. Nitori, after a great deal of provoking by Makoto, finally confessed to Rin, but that story remains their own to tell.

While most loose strings were tied together, a few did not. Makoto never saw Rei again, even though Nagisa still spoke of him; at best, he only felt a gentle wind blow past him each time he was outside with Haru. He thought perhaps it was Rei's subtle way to congratulate him. The other remained a comic mystery of the chef's favourite kitchen knife, which everyone in the castle received a strong scolding for. As Makoto flustered and defended himself against the angry cook, Haru stared up at him, a thoughtful gaze. He knew what Makoto nearly did, though he didn't know why, and squeezed Makoto's hand gratefully.

And like that, in their own way, they lived happily ever after 'til the end of their days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first LONG fanfic ever, so really I'd just like to thank anyone who took the time to read through the entire thing. I had all of it written before I posted even the first chapter, but I'm glad I took the time with each chapter so I could proofread and improve. I'm personally very proud and happy with how it came out in the end, especially since I've always felt very uninspired to write until I started writing this. I'm far too dedicated to these swimmers, hehe. But really, it means a lot to see those kudos and comments in my email every now and then. Never stop being lovely, reader.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story!! <3


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